threshold

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“
For the threshold is a part of the dwelling which from of old has been held sacred, and is generally avoided by uncanny beings.

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun A piece of wood or stone placed beneath a door; a doorsill.
  2. noun An entrance or a doorway.
  3. noun The place or point of beginning; the outset.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • This threshold was also raised, and the sounds plainly indicated the room beyond had a floor covered with water. —  036 - Mystery Under the Sea
  • Beyond these watchers on the threshold was the door marked "Private." —  The Project Gutenberg eBook of Jill the Reckless, by P. G. Wodehouse
  • What distinguishes the members of the billion-dollar club from those that haven't reached the threshold is a willingness to meet challenges and see solutions others don't. —  ChannelWeb Complete Feed
  • Played with it a bit and was disappointed that Google doesn't provide data for most "smaller" sites (seems the threshold is around 100K monthly uniques). —  NextBlitz
  • In fact, the threshold is approximately 100 times greater than the typical or median residential customer usage, which is 2 to 3 GB / month. —  The Internet Patrol
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

doorway ·  confine ·  limit ·  level ·  boundary ·  gate ·  verge ·  input ·  peak ·  frequency ·  depth ·  requirement

Used in the same contextWord Family

threshold:   thresholds
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English thresshold, from Old English therscold, threscold; see terə-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English also threshould; dial. also throshel, threshfod, Scots threshwart, threshwort; formerly also trestle (Florio), by confusion with trestle, variant threstle, a frame; from Middle English *threshold, threshwold, thresshewold, threswold, threswolde, threxwold, threoxwold, thriswald, therswald, threshefold, thressfold, threisshfold, from Anglo-Saxon *threscold, therscold, threscwald, therscwald, theorscwold, threcswald, threoxwold, threxwold, thercswold, therxwold, therxold = Middle Low German dreskelef, Low German drüssel = Old High German driscūfli, drisgūfli, thriscūfli, driscūvili, thriscūbile, driscūfle, trischūvil, Middle High German drischūvel, druschūphel, durschūfel. German dial. drischänfel, drischibl, drischiwel, trüschhübel, drissufle = Icelandic threskjöldr, thresköldr (with numerous variations in inflection), modern thröskuldr (also threpskjöldr, simulating threp, a ledge) = Swedish tröskel, dial. traskuld = Norwegian treskald, treskall, treskjel, treskel = Danish tærskel, threshold; the variations of form indicate that the terminal element was not understood; it is prob. therefore a somewhat disguised form of a suffix, the formation being prob. from Anglo-Saxon *threscan, therscan, thresh, tread, trample, + -old, corruptly -wold, a transposed form of an old formative -o-thlo-, appearing also as -thol, -thel; the literally sense being then ‘that which is trodden on,’ i. e. ‘a tread’ (cf. tread, the part of a step or stair that is trodden on), therscan, thresh, being taken in the sense ‘tread, trample’ (as in Gothic (Moesogothic)). In the common view the second element -wold is supposed to stand for Anglo-Saxon weald, North. wald, wood, and the compound to mean ‘a piece of wood trodden on’; but Anglo-Saxon weald does not mean ‘wood, timber’ (the proper sense being ‘a wood, a forest’: see wold), and it would not take the form -wold, much less -old, in the Anglo-Saxon period, except by corruption (it is possible, however, that some thought of weald led to the otherwise unexplained alteration of -old to -wold); moreover, the element corresponding to weald does not appear in the other Teutonic forms. A third view explains the threshold as orig. “a threshing-floor, because in ancient times the floor at the entrance was used for threshing” (Cleasby and Vigfusson); but the threshing could not have been accomplished on the narrow sills which form thresholds, and it was only in comparatively few houses that threshing was done at all.
 

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/ˈθrɛʃəld/
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