"T" Word Origins

throughout

Old English

From Old English þurh ūt, literally "through out" — a straightforward combination of "through" and "out."

throughput

Origin

From through + put (after input and output).

throughway

Origin

From through + way. Compare thoroughway.

throw

Old English

From Old English þrāwan, originally meaning "to twist" or "to turn" — it came to mean hurling an object only in Middle English.

throwaway

Origin

Deverbal from throw away.

throwback

Origin

Deverbal from throw back.

thrower

Middle English

From Middle English thrower, equivalent to throw + -er.

thrown

Middle English

From Middle English throwen, from Old English þrāwen, ġeþrāwen, from Proto-Germanic *þrēanaz, from Proto-Germanic *þrēaną. Doublet of thran. Morphologically throw + -n.

throwster

Origin

From Middle English throwesters pl; equivalent to throw + -ster.

thrum

Origin

Imitative.

thrush

Latin

From Old English þrysċe, going back to a very old Indo-European word for the bird, also seen in Latin turdus.

thrust

Old Norse

From Old Norse þrysta, meaning "to press" or "to force."

thruster

Origin · 1980

Formed from thrust plus -er; the surfboard sense was coined by surfboard designer Simon Anderson in 1980 and quickly became the generic name for that fin setup.

thrutch

Origin

From Middle English thrucchen (“to push, rush”), from Old English þryċċan (“to push, press, trample on, crush”), from Proto-West Germanic *þrukkijan, from Proto-Germanic *þrukkijaną (“to press”). Cognate with West Frisian drukke (“to press”), Dutch drukken (“to press, squeeze”), German drücken (“to press, push, squeeze”), Swedish trycka (“to press, push, squeeze”).

thruway

Origin

From thru + way.

thud

Old English

From Old English þyddan, "to strike or press," likely imitative of the sound itself.

thug

Hindi · 1800

Borrowed from Hindi thag, "swindler" or "cheat," originally referring to a network of gangs in India who robbed and murdered travelers. The English sense broadened to "violent criminal" by the mid-1800s.

thug life

English

A compound of thug and life. Thug entered English from Hindi ṭhag, "swindler, cheat", originally naming a class of robbers in India. The phrase itself is inseparable from Tupac Shakur, who wore it as a tattoo and used it as the name of a group and an acronym he glossed politically; it spread from mid-1990s American hip-hop.

Thule

Classical Latin

From Classical Latin Thūlē, Thȳlē, from Ancient Greek Θούλη (Thoúlē), Θῡ́λη (Thū́lē), of unknown origin, cognate with Middle English Tīle, Tȳle, from Old English Thȳle, Thīla, Thīle (variants of Þȳle) and Medieval Latin Tīle.

thumb

Old English

From Old English þūma, from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to grow" or "to swell" — the same root that gives us "tomb" (a swollen mound).

Thumbelina

Danish

From "thumb," as an English version of the original Danish name Tommelise, coined by Hans Christian Andersen.

thumbprint

Origin

A straightforward combination of thumb and print.

thumby

Origin

From thumb + -y/-ie (diminutive suffix).

thump

Origin · 1500

First recorded in the mid-1500s, likely imitative of the sound itself.

thunder

Old English

From Old English þunor ("thunder"), the same root that gives us the Norse god Thor and the German word Donner.

thunderbird

Latin

A straightforward compound of thunder and bird, translating names used in various Indigenous North American languages for this mythic creature.

thunderbolt

Origin

From thunder + bolt.

thunderbox

Origin

From thunder + box. Senses 1 and 2 (“portable commode; any lavatory or toilet”) are probably because of the noises that may be made while defecating.

thunderclap

Origin

From thunder + clap.

thundering

Middle English

From Middle English thonderynge, þoundryng, equivalent to thunder + -ing.

thunderous

Origin

From thunder + the adjective ending -ous.

thunderstorm

Origin

From thunder + storm.

thunk

Origin

Onomatopoeic — it simply imitates the sound described. The computing sense is unrelated in origin.

Thurgood

Old Norse

From the Middle English personal name Thurgod, an Anglicized form of Old Norse Þorgautr, a personal name composed of the elements Þórr (“Thor”) and the demonym Gautr (“Geat”).

Thurman

Origin

From an Old Norse personal name, formed by Þórr (“Thor”) + mundr (“protection”).

thurmond

Origin

Variant of Thurman.

Thursday

Latin

From Old English þunresdæg, "Thor's day" — named after the Norse god of thunder, echoing the Latin dies Jovis, "day of Jove."

thurse

Origin

From Middle English thurs, thurse, thursse, thyrce, thirs, from Old English þyrs (“giant, enchanter, demon, wizard”), from Proto-West Germanic *þuris, from Proto-Germanic *þurisaz (“giant, name of the Þ-rune”), from Proto-Indo-European *tur-, *twer- (“to rotate, twirl, swirl, move”). Cognate with German Turse (“giant”), Danish tosse (“a fool, buffoon”), Norwegian tuss, tusse, tust (“goblin, kobold, elf, a dull fellow”), Icelandic þurs (“giant”).

thurstan

Origin

A variant of Thurston, ultimately from Old Norse.

thus

Old English

From Old English þus, related to the word "this."

thusly

Origin

From thus + -ly, dating from the 19th century, seemingly coined by educated writers to make fun of uneducated persons trying to sound genteel, with a false inference that thus is not an adverb.

thwack

Old English

Probably partly imitative of the sound of a hard hit, related to "whack," and partly from an old English word meaning to pat or stroke.

thwart

Old Norse

From Old Norse þverr, meaning "transverse" or "across" — the same root behind the word "queer."

thwarten

Origin

From Middle English thwertenen, equivalent to thwart + -en.

thy

Middle English

From Middle English "thi," a worn-down form of "thin," the old possessive of "thou" — the archaic singular counterpart to modern "you."

thyme

Old French

From Old French thym, ultimately from Greek thumon.

thyroid

Greek

From Greek thyreoeidēs, "shield-shaped," describing the gland's shape.

thyself

Old English

From Old English þīnes selfes, combining thy with self.