Winnie-THER-Pooh?

[Mick3yM0us3]

Whilst reading A.A. Milne's classic children's story, Winnie-the-Pooh, I came upon a very odd section:

When I first heard his [Winnie-the-Pooh's] name, I said, just as you are
going to say, "But I thought he was a boy?"
"So did I," said Christopher Robin.
"Then you can't call him Winnie?"
"I don't."
"But you said---"
"He's Winnie-ther-Pooh. Don't you know what 'ther' means?"
"Ah, yes, now I do," I said quickly; and I hope you [referring to the
reader] do too, because it is all the explanation you are going to get.

So, what I am getting at, is, does anybody get what "Winnie-ther-Pooh" means? I've thought about it and researched it for hours and couldn't come up with an answer... It is driving me crazy.

[dmcman]

Maybe "Winnie- t-HER -Pooh"?

It's a terrible explanation, but that's all I could think of.

[Stitchy]

maybe it's just a bit of nonsense the writer came up with to prove his point of Winnie being a boy....without actually having to come up with a REAL reason.