þrote

Forms

þrote f (weak n-stem; genitive singular þrotan, nominative plural þrotan)^[1] Also þrotu, the form Bosworth and Toller head the word with.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *þrotā, from Proto-Germanic *þrutō (“throat”).^[1][4] Its cognates are Old Frisian throt, Old Saxon strota (“gullet, throat”) and Old High German drozza (whence German Drossel), and probably Old Norse þrútr (“snout, mouth”).^[1][5][6] Holthausen sets beside it the masculine þrota and compares Middle High German drozze and Old Irish trot (“strife”).^[5] The forms with s- in Old Saxon and Middle High German point to a variant *strutō.^[3][5]

Köbler refers it to the root Proto-Indo-European *strewdʰ- (“stiff, to bristle”), an extension of Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“stiff”);^[3][4] Wiktionary gives that root only as a perhaps.^[1] Etymonline calls the Germanic word of uncertain origin and connects it with Old English þrūtian (“to swell”).^[7][5] It is a weak feminine noun.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Old English Boethius (Cotton Otho A. vi) a bitter teaching is likened to a medicine: he þe tirð on ða þrotan þonne ðu his ærast fandast “it tears at you in the throat when you first taste it”.^[8][9] Bald's Leechbook (Royal 12 D. xvii) divides an illness of the neck into two kinds, oþer on þam geagle oþer on þære ðrotan “one in the jaw, the other in the throat”.^[10][9]

Semantic evolution

The word is mostly a prose word, used in the medical texts, in Ælfric and in the glosses, where it renders Latin “guttur” and “gurgulio”.^[2][3][9] Ælfric uses it of the throat Judas strangled, and figuratively of the throat of the mind, which worldly cares choke.^[2] It also forms plant names such as æscþrote and eoforþrote.^[2]

Its continuation Middle English throte kept the sense of the passage from the mouth to the windpipe or gullet; it is now English throat.^[11][7]

Timeline

• s. x med. – he þe tirð on ða þrotan in the Old English Boethius (Cotton Otho A. vi).^[8][9]
• s. x med. – on þære ðrotan in Bald's Leechbook (Royal 12 D. xvii).^[10][9]
• s. xi¹ or xi med. – þrote in the Old English Herbarium (Cotton Vitellius C. iii).^[12][9]
• ?a1200 – Gif þe þin þrotu sar si in a copy of the Herbarium (Harley 6258B).^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. the throat; the gullet or windpipe.^[2][3][1]

Word family

• þrotbolla
• æscþrote
• eoforþrote

Descendants

• Middle English throte (→ English throat)^[1]

Related words

• þrota
• þrūtian

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1072
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. þrote
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
5. ^ a b c d Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 370
6. ^ de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 624
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 296
9. ^ a b c d e f Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
10. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 412
11. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
12. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 347