threat

Pronunciation

• IPA: /θret/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English thret, threte, Northern thrat,^[2][3] inherited from Old English þrēat (“crowd, troop; oppression, coercion, menace”),^[2][4][3] related to Old English þrēotan “to trouble, weary”,^[2][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *thrautam,^[2] also the source of Dutch verdrieten and German verdrießen “to vex”,^[2][6] Old High German driozan “to vex”, Old Norse þraut “struggle, labour” and Gothic usþriutan “to trouble”.^[4][5] According to Watkins it is from Proto-Indo-European *treud- (“to push, press, squeeze”),^[2][4] the source also of Latin trūdere “to push, thrust”,^[4][2] the source of intrude, and Old Church Slavonic trudŭ “oppression”.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A throng, crowd or troop of people, and painful pressure, oppression: before 800 in the OED,^[7] both senses now obsolete.^[7][2] Barnhart dates thrēat to about 725, in Beowulf.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a declaration of hostile intention was already in Old English,^[2] about 1000 in the OED.^[7] In Middle English it was especially a verbal menace.^[2] The old senses “crowd” and “oppression” died out.^[5][8] The verb threat, from Old English þrēatian, was superseded by threaten, from Old English þrēatnian,^[5] and survives as an archaism and in Scottish and dialect use.^[8][9] An indication of coming danger, and a person or thing seen as a possible danger, came later.^[10][11] In zoology, threat behaviour that keeps other animals at a distance is from 1933.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 725 – a troop; oppression.^[4]
• c. 1000 – a menace, threat.^[7]
• 1933 – threat behaviour in animals.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A statement of an intention to cause pain, injury or harm.
2. A sign of coming danger or harm.
3. A person or thing regarded as a possible danger; a menace.

Verb

1. (archaic) To threaten.

Word family

• counterthreat
• triple threat

Related words

• threaten
• threatening
• intrude
• abstruse

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster