Quoth
/kwoʊθ/noun
A past-tense reporting verb meaning 'said,' now used only in archaic or poetic speech.
Did you know?‘Quoth’ survives almost entirely in the fixed literary phrase ‘quoth the raven,’ and it preserves an old English past-tense form that modern English lost.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*h₁es-
“to be, exist”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*wasaną
“to be, remain”
Old English
OE
cwæð
“said, spoke”
Middle English
ME
quoth
“said”
Modern English
EN
quoth
“archaic past tense of 'say'”