English
thready
Thready comes from Middle English *thredi.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*thredireconstructed
- Englishearliest quotation 1578thready
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*thredireconstructed
- Englishearliest quotation 1578thready
Earliest quotation: 1578, Rembert Dodoens, Of Water Betony⸝ or Broune-wurte: “The roote is threddy, like the roote of the…”
Formed from thread + -y
Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- ‘rub’
Proto-Indo-European *treh₁-tu-s
Proto-Germanic *þrēduz ‘thread’
Old English þrǣd
Middle English thred
English thread
The story
From Middle English *thredi, *thredy (suggested by derivative Middle English thredines, þredinez (“fibrousness, stringiness”, literally “threadiness”)), equivalent to thread + -y.
Every English word from Middle English *thredi
Today it means
adj Of, resembling, or capable of forming a thread; filamentous.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English *thredi / thready