What is the origin of the word "threshold"?
by 
erniedetox
ANSWERS: 4
-
Threshold is a very old word, dating to c.1000 and probably earlier. The word thresh originally meant to stamp on or trample and survives today in the verb to thresh (wheat) and in thrash. The hold portion is of unknown origin. The threshold is literally the first place in a building you step and has evolved to mean any gateway. Once again the specious internet lore of Life in the 1500s blows the explanation. It claims that thresh was placed on the bare floor and a block of wood, the threshold, would keep the thresh in when the door was opened. The big problem is that there is no such thing as thresh. Thresh is not and never has been a noun. It is a verb meaning to beat, stamp, trample. Hope this helps.
-
Threshold is a very old word, dating to c.1000 and probably earlier. The word thresh originally meant to stamp on or trample and survives today in the verb to thresh (wheat) and in thrash. The hold portion is of unknown origin. The threshold is literally the first place in a building you step and has evolved to mean any gateway. Once again the specious internet lore of Life in the 1500s blows the explanation. It claims that thresh was placed on the bare floor and a block of wood, the threshold, would keep the thresh in when the door was opened. The big problem is that there is no such thing as thresh. Thresh is not and never has been a noun. It is a verb meaning to beat, stamp, trample. Hope this helps.
-
Threshold, as according to my Oxford English Dictionary on historical principles, as edited by the Philological Society, and published on 1st April 1912, says that threshold is made up of two words: thresh, to tread, or trample; and old. The spelling differs over the years, where old was often spelt wold(e), or wald(e). The exact meaning of the suffix is unknown. Wald(e) often meant either: would, or govern. Wold(e) is another name for wood/forest. Thresh is a verb (now often written as thrash), commonly associated with the separation of corn from the stalks. I could guess where the word threshold originated from, but it would only be a guess; but it definately is not anything to do with keeping straw in a house from spilling outside.
-
In the 17 century English of the King James Bible, the place where grain was gathered after reaping is called the "threshing floor" (ex., Ruth 3:2) It is likely that a board was placed across the opening to prevent the grain from spilling throught the doorway while the threshers were flailing it. It is not necessary that "thresh" was ever noun; the original form could well have been "threshinghold", and shortened to "threshold". This is all speculation, of course, but the logic is valid, and there appears to be nothing to contradict it. One needs to keep in mind that when looking back at an age in which the written word was scarce due to the illiteracy of the general population, the dearth of costly paper, quill and ink, and that most published work was in Latin, the source material for this kind of analysis is pretty thin.
RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC