thrill

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English thrillen (“to pierce, penetrate”),^[2][3][4] a form of thirlen, earlier thurlen, with the i and r swapped (metathesis),^[3][5][6][7] inherited from Old English þyrlian, also þyrelian, to pierce, perforate,^[6][8][9] from þyrel (“hole, aperture”),^[9][6][10] earlier *þyrhil, formed from þurh (“through”) and the suffix -el.^[3][10][9] Etymonline compares Middle High German dürchel (“pierced, perforated”).^[6] The American Heritage Dictionary places it under the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *terə-.^[2] The noun is formed from the verb.^[5][7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To pierce, bore through, penetrate: about 1330, in Mannyng's Chronicle,^[5] before 1325 in the Cursor Mundi according to Barnhart.^[3] Merriam-Webster recalls that a person "thrilled" in the 14th century had most likely been run through with a sword or lance.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense, still used of swords in a 1661 song quoted by Merriam-Webster ("Thrilling and drilling, And killing, and spilling"),^[11] died out in the 17th century.^[5] Already in Middle English it was used figuratively of a sound or an emotion piercing someone,^[5][6] and by the 1590s it meant to give someone a shivering, exciting feeling;^[6][3] Barnhart finds this first in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.^[3] In King Lear a servant is "thrill'd with remorse".^[11][5] In the 17th century the verb could also mean to hurl a piercing weapon, a sense Hoad finds hard to account for.^[5][10] The noun, a sudden tremor of emotion, follows about 1680,^[5][6] and a vibration or quivering by 1817.^[5][6] The intransitive sense "quiver, vibrate", first of sound or light, is from 1776.^[6][11] According to Ayto the narrowing to a feeling of pleasure is fairly recent, from the late 19th century,^[12] and Word Origins notes that "I'm thrilled!" for "I'm delighted" belongs to the early 20th century.^[13] A thrill as a thrilling experience is recorded from 1936.^[5][6] The older, wider sense lives on in thriller, an exciting play or story, first used in the 1880s.^[12][13][3] Doctors have spoken of a thrill, a vibration felt in examining the chest, since 1822.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – to pierce, bore, penetrate (obsolete by 1661).^[5]
• before 1400 – figurative, of a sound or emotion, to pierce.^[5]
• 1590s – to fill with a shivering, exciting feeling.^[6][3]
• 1609 – to hurl a piercing weapon (obsolete).^[5]
• c. 1680 – noun, a sudden tremor of emotion.^[5][3]
• 1776 – intransitive, to quiver or vibrate.^[6]
• 1822 – medicine, a vibration felt or heard in examination.^[5]
• 1886 – sensational quality of a story; a sensational story.^[5]
• 1889 – thriller, an exciting story or play.^[3]
• 1936 – a thrilling experience.^[5][6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A sudden feeling of excitement and pleasure: Meeting her favourite author gave her a real thrill.
2. An experience that gives such a feeling.
3. A trembling or tingling sensation caused by fear or strong emotion.
4. (medicine) A fine vibration or tremor felt with the hand over the heart or a blood vessel.
5. (archaic) A throb or pulsation.

Verb

1. To fill someone with sudden excitement or pleasure: The acrobats thrilled the crowd.
2. To feel a thrill: She thrilled at the sound of the band.
3. Of an emotion or sensation, to pass through someone like a nervous tremor; to quiver or tremble.
4. (obsolete) To pierce or perforate.

Word family

• thrillingly
• athrill
• thriller

Related words

• thirl
• nostril
• through
• thorough
• drill

Usage notes

Several obsolete words were spelled thrill: a Scots variant of thrall (late 15th century), a verb meaning to trickle (1540–1615), and a hole or nostril (about 1400–1634), from thirl.^[5][7] A variant of thill, the shaft of a cart, is recorded from 1688 and was still used in Cheshire dialect in the 19th century.^[5][14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
9. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ 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)