Etymologically
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thorn

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /θɔːn/[1]
  • US: /θoɹn/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English thorn, inherited from Old English þorn (“sharp point on a stem; thorny tree or plant”),[2][3][4][5] inherited from Proto-West Germanic *þorn,[1] inherited from Proto-Germanic *þurnaz,[1] which the OED, Barnhart and Orel reconstruct as the u-stem *þurnuz.[3][5][6] It is cognate with Old Saxon thorn, Old Frisian thorn, Dutch doorn, Old High German dorn and German Dorn, Old Norse þorn, Swedish torn and Danish torn, and Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽𐌿𐍃 (þaurnus).[3][2][5][6] The OED and Hoad derive the Germanic noun from Proto-Indo-European *tṛnus,[3][7] Wiktionary from *tr̥nós,[1] which is also the source of Old Church Slavonic трънъ (trŭnŭ, “thorn”) and, with the sense of grass, Sanskrit तृण (tṛ́ṇa, “grass, blade of grass”).[3][7][1][6] Klein and Hoad add Ancient Greek τέρναξ (térnax, “stalk or prickle of the cactus”).[8][7] Etymonline gives Watkins's further analysis, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ter-n- (“thorny plant”), perhaps from *ster- (“stiff”),[2] while Klein and Köbler connect it with *ter- (“to pierce, rub, bore”).[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barnhart finds the sense "sharp point on a stem or branch" about 750, in Cynewulf's Christ, and the sense "thorny tree or plant" earlier, about 700, implied in hæguthorn, hawthorn.[5] The OED's first quotation for the prickle of a plant is from the Old English Lindisfarne Gospels.[3] Bosworth–Toller glosses it both as the prickle and as a plant bearing prickles, and notes that it is found in many local names.[4]

Semantic evolution

The Old English word covered both the prickle and the thorny shrub, especially the hawthorn,[2][3][4] and both senses have lasted.[3] In Middle English it often referred to the rose or to Christ's crown of thorns.[2] The figurative sense, anything that causes pain, grief or trouble, is recorded from about 1230;[3][2] a thorn in the flesh comes from 2 Corinthians 12:7,[2] and a thorn in one's side is used in the same way.[10] From about 1300 it was used of a spine on an animal.[3] Thorn was also the Old English and Icelandic name of the runic letter þ, named, like other runes, after a word beginning with it;[3][2][4] Collins records its use in Icelandic and in Old English manuscripts.[11] In the 19th century collectors gave the name to a group of moths (1832),[3][11] and lace-makers to the points on point-lace (1874).[3] The verb, to make thorny or protect with thorns, is recorded from 1483, and to prick or vex from 1592.[3] In Yorkshire, work that paid little and uncertainly was said to be like licking honey off a thorn.[12]

Timeline

  • c. 700 – a thorny tree, implied in hæguthorn, hawthorn.[5]
  • c. 750 – sharp point on a stem, in Cynewulf's Christ.[5]
  • Old English – the prickle of a plant (Lindisfarne Gospels); a thorny plant; the name of the rune þ.[3]
  • c. 1230 – figurative, a cause of pain or trouble.[3][2]
  • c. 1300 – a spine on an animal.[3]
  • c. 1330 – thorn bushes collectively; their wood.[3]
  • 1483 – verb, to furnish with thorns.[3]
  • 1592 – verb, to prick; to vex.[3]
  • 1832 – a name for various moths.[3]
  • 1874 – in lace-making, decorative points.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A stiff, sharp-pointed woody projection on the stem or another part of a plant; in botany, one that is a modified branch: She caught her sleeve on a rose thorn.[11][13][10]
  2. A shrub or tree that bears thorns, especially the hawthorn; also the wood of such a plant.[11][13][3]
  3. A cause of continual pain, trouble or annoyance, especially in a thorn in one's side or a thorn in the flesh.[10][3][14]
  4. The letter þ, a character of runic origin used in Old English and Icelandic for the sound of th.[11][3]
  5. A spine on an animal.[3][13]
  6. Any of various moths of the family Geometridae; short for thorn moth.[11][3]

Verb

  1. To prick with or as with a thorn; to vex or irritate.[13][10][3]
  2. To make thorny; to protect a newly planted hedge with dead thorn branches.[13][3][10]

Word family

  • thornless
  • thorned
  • thornbush
  • blackthorn
  • boxthorn
  • buckthorn
  • thorny
  • hawthorn

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  13. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.