English
thresh
Thresh comes from Old English þerscan ‘to thresh’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *þreskaną.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*þreskaną‘to thresh’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150þerscan‘to thresh’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500thrasshen
- Englishearliest quotation 1967thresh
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*þreskaną‘to thresh’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150þerscan‘to thresh’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500thrasshen
- Englishearliest quotation 1967thresh
Earliest quotation: 1967, J. A. Baker, The Peregrine: “The jay fell all lopsidedly and threshing, as though…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- ‘to rub, turn’
turn, tournament, throw, tragic, trout, thread, detrimental, tyrone, detriment, detour, attrition, tourney, triage, trite, termite, tribulation, detritus, tourniquet, truant, tyro, derma, 43 more
through Middle English thrasshen
Today it means
verb To separate the grain from the straw or husks (chaff) by mechanical beating, with a flail or machinery, or by driving animals over them.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *þreskaną / thresh