Etymologically
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threshold

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Pronunciation

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

Etymology

It is 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
  • 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