throttle

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English throtelen,^[2][3][4] probably from English throat + -le.^[5][6][7][8] Etymonline suggests that the suffix may be frequentative, as in sparkle, or the one that names a tool, as in handle, or that it simply kept the word apart from the older verb throten (“to cut the throat of”);^[9] Dictionary.com also calls it a frequentative of that verb.^[4] throat is from Old English þrote.^[9] The OED compares erdrosseln, which it takes from Middle High German drozzel (“throat”).^[5] The noun has a separate source, which is uncertain.^[5][10] Skeat, Hoad, Klein and the Shorter Oxford take it as a diminutive of throat, like German Drossel,^{[11][8][12][7]} and Etymonline calls it an independent formation from throat, not derived from the verb.^[9] The OED suggests instead an alteration of thrapple after throat and the verb, or a noun use of the verb itself,^[5] and Merriam-Webster an alteration of thropple influenced by the verb.^[3] The mechanical sense of the noun comes from the verb, comparing the valve's restriction of steam or fuel in a pipe to choking, as with choke.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To choke or suffocate a person or animal: about 1450 (perhaps composed before 1400), in the Wars of Alexander, whose people are "nearly throttled with the thick air".^[5][2] Barnhart cites it before 1387, in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon,^[6][13] and Etymonline dates it about 1400.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From strangling, the verb passed to cutting short an utterance as if by choking (1582, in Stanyhurst's Virgil, obsolete by 1810), to silencing a person or group (1641, in Milton) and to holding back a feeling (1862).^[5] From 1825 it meant to hinder or crush something more generally.^[5] The noun began as a word for the throat, in Surrey's translation of the Aeneid (before 1547), and for the larynx from 1615;^[5][14] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the windpipe".^[15] In the engineering of the 19th century the verb was used of reducing the flow of steam or fuel (1827),^[5] and the noun throttle valve is recorded from 1824;^[6][9] the noun alone for the valve follows in 1838 in the OED,^[5] and in the 1870s in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[6][9] Full throttle, maximum power or speed, is found from 1843 (Etymonline, 1848),^[5][9] and the lever or pedal that works the valve, such as a car's accelerator, from 1902.^[5] In the 1970s computing added the sense of limiting the bandwidth of a network connection.^[5] The older sense "throat" is now chiefly colloquial or regional:^[5][16] the English Dialect Dictionary records it from Scotland to Herefordshire, with compounds such as throttle-deep, up to the throat.^[17]

Timeline

• before 1387 – the verb, in Trevisa, according to Barnhart.^[6]
• c. 1450 – to choke, suffocate or strangle.^[5][2]
• before 1547 – noun, the throat.^[5][14]
• 1582 – to cut short an utterance (obsolete by 1810).^[5]
• 1615 – noun, the larynx (obsolete by 1905).^[5]
• 1641 – to silence a person.^[5]
• 1824 – throttle valve.^[6][9]
• 1825 – to hinder or crush.^[5]
• 1827 – to reduce the flow of steam or fuel to an engine.^[5]
• 1838 – noun, a valve controlling the flow of a fluid.^[5]
• 1843 – full throttle.^[5]
• 1902 – the lever or pedal that controls a throttle valve.^[5]
• 1976 – in computing, to restrict bandwidth.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To choke or strangle a person or animal by squeezing the throat, sometimes to death: He looked ready to throttle the referee.^[3][16][5]
2. To suppress or hold back; to stop something from growing or being expressed: Heavy taxes throttled the young industry.^[3][16][5]
3. To control the flow of fuel or steam to an engine with a valve; often with back or down, to slow an engine or vehicle in this way.^[16][3][5]
4. In computing, to limit the bandwidth or rate of a network connection or user.^[5]

Noun

1. A valve that controls the amount of fuel, or fuel and air, entering an engine; a throttle valve.^[16][3][5]
2. The pedal or lever that works such a valve, such as the accelerator of a car.^[3][5]
3. at full throttle: at full speed or with full power; also figuratively, with all one's energy.^[3][5]
4. (colloquial or dialect) The throat or windpipe.^[16][5][17]

Word family

• throttler
• throttlehold
• throttleable
• throttle valve

Related words

• throat
• thrapple
• thropple

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b 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)