travail English · revision 1158

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /tɹəˈveɪl/, /ˈtɹæˌveɪl/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It comes from Middle English ''travail'',^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline) [[der|fro|travail|t=suffering, painful effort]],^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) from ''travailler'' “to toil”, originally “to trouble, torture”,^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) [[der|la-vul|*tripaliare|t=to torture]],^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate) from ''*tripālium'', Late Latin ''trepālium'' “instrument of torture”,^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) probably from [[la|tripalis|t=having three stakes]].^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate) It is a doublet of [[travel]].^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Hard bodily or mental labour, toil, trouble (about 1250–75).^(Barnhart 1995)^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ From the late 13th century the noun also meant the labour and pain of childbirth (1297),^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline) and the verb to be in labour by the mid-14th century.^(Etymonline) ''Travel'', originally the same word, took the sense of a laborious journey and developed separately.^(Etymonline) Both noun and verb are now chiefly literary or archaic.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * about 1250 – toil, hardship.^(OED 1989)

+ * about 1275 – verb, to toil; to trouble.^(Barnhart 1995)

+ * 1297 – the labour of childbirth.^(OED 1989)

+ * mid-14th century – verb, to be in labour.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1563 – a finished work, especially a literary one.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # Hard, painful work; [[toil]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Mental or physical suffering; [[anguish]] or [[agony]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)

+ # The [[labor]] of childbirth.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To work hard; to toil.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+ # To be in the labour of childbirth.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[travel]]

+ * [[pale]]

+ * [[tripod]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Random House lists ''labor'' and ''moil'' as synonyms of the noun in its sense of toil, and ''torment'' and ''agony'' in its sense of suffering.^(RHWU)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}