Etymograph

English

thistle

Thistle comes from Middle English thistel, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *þistilaz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*þistilazreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*þistilreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150þistel
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500thistel
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1611thistle

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*þistilazreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*þistilreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150þistel
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500thistel
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1611thistle

Earliest quotation: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to…”

The story

þīh- from *teyg-, which is a variant of Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (‘to prick’); from this same Proto-Indo-European root comes English stick.

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *þistilaz

Today it means

noun Any of several perennial composite plants, especially of genera Cirsium, Carduus, Cynara, or Onopordum, having prickly leaves and showy flower heads with prickly bracts.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *þistilaz / thistle

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