thrice

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English thries, also þriȝes and þryës,^[2][3][4][5] formed from Middle English thrie (“three times”) + -es, with the ending of the adverbial genitive, after ones, modern once; compare twice.^{[2][6][7][5][8]} That adverb is from Old English þrīga, also þrīwa,^{[7][5][4][3][9]} from þrīe (“three”), the source of three.^[7][10][5] The Old English adverb is cognate with Old Frisian thria and Old Saxon thrīwo,^[7][5][11] and the American Heritage Dictionary traces it to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *trei- (“three”).^[4] From about 1600 the word was spelled with -ce, as in dice, mice and twice, to show the long vowel and the voiceless s.^{[2][10][12][8][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Three times in succession, on three occasions: about 1175, in the Ormulum.^[2] Barnhart dates the form thries to probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle, and Old English þrīga to about 950;^[13] the Shorter Oxford treats the Old English adverb as the same word and dates it to Old English.^[11]

Semantic evolution

From before 1400, in the Cursor Mundi, thrice also meant three times as much in number or amount, often loosely for many times as much.^[2] From the 16th century it was joined to participles and adjectives, first literally (1568) and then as a loose intensive meaning very or greatly (1579), like Latin ter.^[2] Shakespeare's line "thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just" shows this intensive use.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "three times", quoting Spenser and Shakespeare.^[14] The Shorter Oxford now labels the word chiefly archaic or literary.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – three times, on three occasions, in the Ormulum.^[2]
• before 1400 – three times as much; many times as much.^[2]
• 1470–85 – as an adjective, threefold, in Malory.^[2]
• 1568 – joined to a past participle, as in compound adjectives.^[2]
• 1579 – with adjectives, very, highly, greatly.^[2]
• c. 1600 – the spelling thrice.^[2][10]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Three times; on three occasions: The bell rang thrice before the door opened.^[9][5][2]
2. Three times as much; in a threefold degree.^[9][5][2]
3. (archaic) Greatly, very, highly, especially before an adjective or participle: thrice blessed.^[9][5][2]

Related words

• three
• twice
• once

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.