trench

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tɹɛnt͡ʃ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English trenche (“track cut through a wood”),^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French trenche (“a cut; a ditch”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from trenchier “to cut”,^[2][3][4][5] probably from Vulgar Latin *trincāre, a variant of Latin truncāre (“to cut off, maim”), from truncus “trunk”.^[2][3][4][6] Merriam-Webster derives the Vulgar Latin verb from trīnī “three each”, as if “to cut in three”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A path or track cut through a wood (c. 1386).^[7][3][4]

Semantic evolution

By 1489 the word meant a long narrow ditch,^[7][3] and about 1500 a ditch for military protection,^[7][3][4] later including the bank of earth thrown up in front of it (1585).^[7][4] Trench warfare was the defining feature of the Western Front in the First World War, which gave the trench coat.^[4] In oceanography a trench is a long deep channel in the sea bed (1936).^[7][4] The verb meant “to cut” (1483) and later “to encroach” (1620s).^[7][4][3]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – a track cut through a wood.^[7][4]
• 1483 – verb, to cut.^[7][3]
• 1489 – a long narrow ditch.^[7][3]
• c. 1500 – a military trench.^[7][3][4]
• 1620s – verb, to encroach.^[4]
• 1914 – trench warfare.^[4]
• 1936 – a deep channel in the sea bed.^[7][4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A deep furrow or ditch.
2. A long narrow ditch, with the earth thrown up in front, used for protection in warfare.
3. A long, narrow, steep-sided depression in the ocean floor.

Verb

1. To dig a trench in, or to fortify with trenches; to entrench.
2. To dig a trench or trenches.
3. To encroach or verge, often with on or upon.
4. To make a cut in; to carve.

Word family

• retrench
• entrench
• trencher
• trench coat
• trench fever
• trench foot

Related words

• tranche
• trenchant
• truncate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press