Etymologically
Log in

trencher

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word trencher

Pronunciation

  • /ˈtɹɛnt͡ʃə(ɹ)/[1]

trencher1 platter, knife

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1308
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman trenchour via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old French trenchier

Etymology

The word for the platter and the knife is inherited from Middle English trenchour, also trencheour and trencher,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman trenchour,[4][5][6] which corresponds to Old Northern French trencheor, recorded in 1206.[4][2] French later had tranchoir.[4] It is formed from trenchier (“to cut”), the source of trench, with the suffix that represents Latin -ātorium,[4] so that the word is literally "a cutting place".[3][7] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1280–1307 for a person who cuts or carves, a knife, and a plate for cutting up or serving meat.[8] Etymonline and Hoad take the French verb to Vulgar Latin *trincō, from truncō (“to maim, cut off”),[7][9] while the American Heritage Dictionary calls the Vulgar Latin step only a possibility.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A flat piece of wood on which meat was served and cut up: about 1308, in a song printed in the Camden edition of political songs.[4][3] Etymonline gives about 1300.[7]

Semantic evolution

Both main senses were already present in the French word, as the OED notes from Godefroy.[4] The knife is recorded from about 1330, in R. Mannyng's Chronicle,[4] before 1338 in Barnhart,[3] and died out in the 16th century.[4][10] A trencher could also be a slice of bread used as a plate, from about 1380 to 1513,[4][2] and stale or inferior loaves for the purpose were called trencher bread.[2][7] Because it held the meal, the word came to stand for the food itself and the pleasures of the table: Johnson (1755) gives "the table" and "food; pleasures of the table" after the piece of wood, and quotes Shakespeare and Dryden.[11] The compound trencherman, a hearty eater and, archaically, a sponger, dates from the 16th century,[12][9] and Shakespeare's trencher knight shows an archaic adjectival sense, "parasitic".[13] An academic cap thought to resemble a square platter was a trencher cap in the 18th century, according to Hoad,[9] and the OED records plain trencher for it in 1834.[4] Wright's dialect dictionary records the wooden plate in general dialect use in Scotland and England, though by then it was often kept for chopping greens or as a bread board, in Cumberland, East Anglia and Shropshire.[14]

Timeline

  • c. 1308 – a flat piece of wood for serving and cutting up meat; a plate or platter.[4][3]
  • c. 1330 – a knife or cutting tool (obsolete by 1553).[4]
  • c. 1380 – a slice of bread used as a plate (obsolete by 1513).[4]
  • c. 1510 – transferred, a flat board.[4]
  • 1576 – a trencher and what it carries; a supply of food.[4]
  • 1828 – turn the trencher, a game of spinning a plate on its edge.[4]
  • 1834 – an academic cap, short for trencher cap.[4]
  • 1903 – a butcher's tray.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic or historical) A wooden board or platter on which food was served or cut up.[12][13][4]
  2. A mortarboard, the square academic cap; also called a trencher cap.[12][13][4]
  3. (archaic) A flat board or wooden disc.[13][4]
  4. (archaic) Food or a meal, seen as what a trencher carries.[13][4][11]
  5. (obsolete, c. 1330–1553) A knife or other cutting tool.[4][10]
  6. (obsolete, c. 1380–1513) A slice of bread used as a plate.[4][2]

Word family

  • trencherman
  • trencher cap

trencher2 carver, digger of trenches

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1625 before 1625, J. Fletcher, Noble Gentleman
Ultimate origins
Old French trencheProto-Germanic *-ārī
Etymology tree of trencher2
inherited borrowed derived
English trench
English trencher

Etymology

The word for the carver and the digger of trenches is formed from English trench + -er.[4][10][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who carves: before 1625, in J. Fletcher's Noble Gentleman, a rare use found only in the early 17th century.[4][10]

Semantic evolution

The first use follows the older sense of the verb trench, "to cut, carve", and the later ones its sense "to form a trench", which Etymonline dates from the 1520s.[7][4] A digger of trenches is dated 1851 by Merriam-Webster Unabridged[13] and 1871 by the OED,[4] and the name passed to the machine in the 20th century.[4][10]

Timeline

  • before 1625 – a person who carves (rare and obsolete).[4]
  • 1851 – a person who digs trenches.[13] The OED's first quotation is from 1871, in J. S. Blackie.[4]
  • 1947 – a machine or attachment for digging trenches.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person who digs trenches.[13][12][4]
  2. A machine or attachment for digging trenches.[4][10][12]
  3. (obsolete, before 1625) A carver.[4][10]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ 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 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  14. ^ 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)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Trencher.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/trencher. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·