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THREAT, THREATEN,
a menace. (E.) M.E. þret; the dat. þrete occurs in
The Owl and Nightingale, l. 58; hence the verb þreten,
Chaucer, Legend of Good Women, 754; also the verb þretenen,
Wyclif, Mark, i. 25. [The latter is mod. E. threaten.]—A.S.
þreat, (1) a crowd, crush, or throng of people, which is the
usual meaning, Grein, ii. 598; also (2) a great pressure, calamity, trouble, and
hence, a threat, rebuke, Grein, ii. 598, l. 1. The orig. sense
was a push as of a crowd, hence pressure put upon any one.—A.S.
þreát, pt. t. of the strong verb þreótan, appearing only in
the impersonal comp. áþreótan, to afflict, vex, lit. to press extremely, urge. +
Icel. þrjóta, pt. t. þraut, pp. þrotinn, to fail, lack, come short; used
impersonally. (The orig. sense was perhaps to urge, trouble, whence
the sb. þraut, a hard task, struggle.) + Goth. thriutan, only in the comp.
usthriutan, to use despitefully, trouble, vex greatly. + O.H.G. driozan, in the
comp. ardriozan, M.H.G. erdriezen, impers. verb, to tire, vex; also appearing in
G. verdriessen (pt. t. verdross), to vex, trouble. β. All from the
Teut. base THRUT, to press upon, urge, vex, trouble; this answers to Lat. trudere, to push, shove, crowd, urge, press upon (cf.
trudis, a pole to push
with); also to Russ. trudite, to make a man work, to trouble, disturb,
vex. γ. This Aryan base TRUD is an extension from the base TRU, to
vex, as seen in Gk.
τρύ-ειν, to harass, afflict, vex, and in Gk.
τραῦ-μα, a
wound,
τρύ-μη, a hole (a thing made by boring),
τρῦ-σις, distress.
δ. Lastly, TRU is a derivative from
✔TAR, to rub, bore; see
Trite. We see clearly the successive senses of rub or bore, harass,
urge, crowd, put pressure upon any one, threaten. Cf. our phrase 'to
bore any one.' The derivation is verified by the A.S. þreá, a throe,
an affliction, vexation, threat, þrean, to afflict (Grein, ii. 596, 597), G.
drohen, a threat, from the shorter base THRU = Aryan TRU; Fick, iii.
140. See Throe.
Der. threat, verb, K. John, iii. I. 347,
M.E. þreten (as above), A.S. þreátian (weak verb), Grein, ii. 598; also
threat-en, M.E. þretenen (as above); threat-en-ing,
threat-en-ing-ly.
From the same base, abs-truse, de-trude, ex-trude, in-trude, ob-trude, pro-trude.
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