threshold

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈθɹɛʃəʊld/, /ˈθɹɛʃˌhəʊld/ (UK); /ˈθɹɛ.ʃoʊld/, /ˈθɹɛʃ.hoʊld/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English thresshewold, inherited from Old English þrescold (“doorsill, point of entering”), þerscwald,^[2][3][4] a word of uncertain origin, probably much altered by folk etymology.^[3] The first element is related to Old English þrescan, to thresh (see thresh), perhaps in an older sense, to tread, trample;^[2][3][4][5] the second is unexplained,^[4][5] and was probably altered to look like hold.^[3] Liberman revives a theory that it is the Proto-Germanic instrumental suffix *-thlo, and that a threshold was originally a threshing area next to the living area of a house.^[3] Cognates include Old Norse þreskjǫldr and Swedish tröskel.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The piece of timber or stone below a door; also a border or limit, the line crossed on entering: about 888, in Alfred's translation of Boethius.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The figurative use, the border or beginning of a region, was already in Old English, and later the beginning of a state or condition, as of manhood or victory.^[3] The American Heritage note connects the treading sense of thresh with the custom of carrying a bride over the threshold.^[7] In psychology the point at which a stimulus is just perceived is first recorded in James Sully's Sensation and Intuition (1874).^[2] The level at which something takes effect, as a tax threshold, is a later general sense.^[8][7]

Timeline

• c. 888 – a doorsill; a limit.^[6]
• before 1376 – thresshewold.^[2]
• 1874 – a sensory threshold.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A piece of wood or stone placed beneath a door; a doorsill.
2. An entrance or doorway.
3. The point of beginning: on the threshold of a career.
4. The level at which a stimulus is just strong enough to produce an effect or response.

Word family

• subthreshold

Related words

• thresh
• sill
• doorstep

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins