s originating in the imperative of SEON, _to see_.

2. AN, our indefinite article, is the Saxon _oen, ane, an_, ONE; and, by
dropping _n_ before a consonant, becomes _a_. Gawin Douglas, an ancient
English writer, wrote _ane_, even before a consonant; as, "_Ane_
book,"--"_Ane_ lang spere,"--"_Ane_ volume."

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--The words of Tooke, concerning the derivation of _That_ and _The_,
as nearly as they can be given in our letters, are these: "THAT (in the
Anglo-Saxon Thaet, i.e. Thead, Theat) means _taken, assumed_; being merely
the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb Thean, Thegan, Thion, Thihan,
Thicgan, Thigian; sumere, assumere, accipere; to THE, to _get_, to _take_,
to _assume_.

'Ill mote he THE That caused me
To make myselfe a frere.'--_Sir T. More's Workes, pag._ 4.

THE (our _article_, as it is called) is the imperative of the same verb
Thean: which may very well supply the place of the correspondent
Anglo-Saxon article Se, which is the imperative of Seon, videre: for it
answers the same purpose in discourse, to say.... _see_ man, or _take_
man."--_Diversions of Purley_, Vol. ii, p. 49.

OBS. 2.--Now, between _Thaet_ and _Theat_, there is a considerable
difference of form, for _ae_ and _ea_ are not the same diphthong; and, in
the identifying of so many infinitives, as forming but one verb, there is
room for error. Nor is it half so probable that these are truly one root,
as that our article _The_ is the same, in its origin, as the old
Anglo-Saxon _Se_. Dr. Bosworth, in his Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, gives no
such word as _Thean_ or _Thegan_, no such participle as _Thead_ or _Theat_,
which derivative is perhaps imaginary; but he has inserted together
"Thicgan, thicgean, thigan, _to receive, or take_;" and separately, "Theon,
_to thrive, or flourish_,"--"Thihan, _to thrive_,"--and "Thion, _to
flourish_;" as well as the preterit "Theat, _howled_," from "Theotan, _to
howl_." And is it not plain, that the old verb "THE," as used by More, is
from Theon, _to thrive_, rather than from Thicgan, _to take_? "Ill mote he
THE"--"Ill might he _thrive_," not, "Ill might he _take_."

OBS. 3.--Professor Hart says, "The word _the_ was originally _thaet_, or
_that_. In course of time [,] it became abbreviated, and the short form
acquired, in usage, a shade of meaning different from the original long
one. _That_ is demonstrative with emphasis; _the_ is demonstrative without
emphasis."--_Hart's E. Gramm