Etymologically
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thrive

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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)