thrive

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English thriven, first as þrifenn in the Ormulum,^[2][3] borrowed from Old Norse þrífask (“to thrive”), originally "to grasp for oneself",^[4][5][6][7] the reflexive form of þrífa (“to clutch, grasp, grip”).^[4][8][9] The Norse reflexive ending was lost before the word became English.^[2] Related are trivas, trives (“to thrive, flourish”) and triva (“to seize”);^[4][7][8] the origin of the Norse verb is unknown.^[4][3][9] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Germanic *þrībaną.^[1] thrift comes from the same Norse source.^[9][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To grow, increase: about 1175, in the Ormulum;^[2][6] Barnhart's thrifenn "to flourish, prosper" is dated probably about 1200,^[3] Etymonline the late 12th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

According to Ayto, the step from "grasp for oneself" to "prosper" probably came through the idea of gathering resources.^[9] The early English sense was simply "to grow, increase", and also "to succeed in war";^[2][6] "to prosper, to grow rich" is recorded before 1366, in the Romaunt of the Rose,^[2] and Hoad dates it to the 13th century.^[6] Of things, "to turn out well" dates from 1587, and the figurative use of ideas or institutions, often thrive on, from 1613.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to prosper; to grow rich" and found "no satisfactory etymology".^[12] The past forms vary: throve and thriven are older, and thrived is now common.^[13][14][4] In Scotland and the north the EDD recorded many dialect past tenses, such as thrave and threeve.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – to grow, increase.^[2]
• before 1366 – to prosper, grow rich.^[2]
• 1587 – of a thing, to turn out well.^[2]
• 1592 – noun thrive, thriving, profit (obsolete).^[2]
• 1613 – figuratively, of ideas or institutions.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To grow strongly and healthily: Tomatoes thrive in a warm, sunny spot.
2. To do well; to prosper or flourish: The bakery thrived after the new road opened.
3. thrive on: to enjoy or do well because of something, especially something others find hard: She seems to thrive on pressure.

Word family

• thriver
• thrivingly
• thriving

Related words

• thrift
• prosper
• flourish

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ 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)