Etymology

Determiner

1. The (thing) here .

   This classroom is where I learned to read and write.

2. The known (thing) .

   They give the appearance of knowing what they're doing. It's this appearance that lets them get away with so much.

3. The known (thing) .

   When asked what he wanted for his birthday, he gave this reply: “[…]”

4. A known (thing) .

   I met this woman the other day who's allergic to wheat. I didn't even know that was possible!

1. The thing, item, etc. being indicated.

   This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune,—often the surfeit of our own behaviour,—we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical pre-dominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star! — Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 1. Scene 2.