Etymologically
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throttle

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈθɹɒtəl/[1]
  • US: /ˈθɹɑtəl/[1]

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

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)