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third [third 词源字典]: third: [OE] Third goes back ultimately to an Indo- European *tritjos, an ordinal derivative of the base that produced English three. Amongst its other descendants were Greek trítos, Latin tertius (source of English tertiary [16]), Russian tretij, Polish trzeci, Latvian trešais, and Welsh tryddydd. In prehistoric Germanic it became *thrithjaz, which has evolved into German dritte, Dutch derde, Swedish and Danish tredje, and English third.
=> three[third etymology, third origin, 英语词源]
thirst: thirst: [OE] The etymological notion underlying the word thirst is of being ‘dry’. For it goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *trs, *tors- ‘dry’, which also produced Latin torrēre ‘parch’ (source of English toast, torrid, etc). From this was formed the prehistoric West Germanic noun *thurstu, which has evolved into German durst, Dutch dorst, and English thirst.
=> terrace, toast, torrid
this: this: [OE] This is descended from the neuter form of the Old English demonstrative adjective and pronoun whose masculine form was thes. It was formed in the prehistoric Germanic period from the demonstrative base *tha- (source also of English that, there, etc) and a suffix *-se which had the function of indicating a specific thing.
=> the, those
thong: thong: [OE] Etymologically, a thong is something that ‘binds’ up. The word comes from a prehistoric Germanic *thwangg-, which also produced German zwang ‘constraint’. In the Old English period it was thwong; it began to lose its w in the 13th century.
thorn: thorn: [OE] Thorn is an ancient word, which goes all the way back to an Indo-European *trnus. The Germanic descendant of this was *thurnuz, which evolved into German dorn, Dutch doorn, Swedish and Danish torn, and English thorn.
thorough: thorough: [OE] Thorough is ultimately the same word as through. Both go back to Old English thurh ‘through’. In its single-syllable form it has stuck to its original role as a preposition and adverb, but in the case of thorough this has now virtually died out, leaving only the adjective, which evolved in the 13th century from the notion of going ‘through’ something so as to affect every part.
=> thrill, through
those: those: [OE] Originally, those was the plural of this. It did not move across to that until the Middle English period, gradually replacing its previous plural thō. The game of musical chairs was completed by these, which was a new formation based on this.
=> this
though: though: [12] English borrowed though from Old Norse thōh, and by the end of the 15th century it had virtually wiped out the related native form, which went back to Old English thēah. Both came from a prehistoric Germanic adverb formed from the demonstrative base *tha- (source also of English that, there, etc) and a suffix meaning ‘and’. Modern Germanic relatives include German and Dutch doch.
=> the
thought: thought: [OE] Thought comes from a prehistoric Germanic noun *gathangkht-, which was formed from the same base as produced English think. Its modern Germanic relatives include German gedächtnis ‘memory’ and Dutch gedachte ‘thought’.
=> thank, think
thousand: thousand: [OE] Thousand is a compound noun of some antiquity, which seems to mean etymologically ‘several hundreds’. Its first element probably comes from a base denoting ‘increase’ or ‘multiplicity’, which also produced Latin tumēre ‘swell’ (source of English tumour) and Sanskrit tuvi ‘much’; its second element is the same as the first element of English hundred. The combination resulted in a prehistoric Germanic *thusundi, which evolved into German tausend, Dutch duizend, Swedish tusen, Danish tusind, and English thousand. It is shared by the Slavic languages – Russian, for instance, has tysjacha.
=> hundred, thigh, thumb, tumour
thrash: thrash: see threshold
thread: thread: [OE] A thread is etymologically something ‘twisted’. The word comes from a prehistoric Germanic *thrǣthuz, which was derived from the base *thrǣ- ‘twist’ (source also of English throw). Other descendants of *thrǣthuz include Dutch draad, Swedish tråd, and Danish traad ‘thread’ and German draht ‘wire’.
=> throw
threat: threat: [OE] Threat originally meant ‘trouble, oppression’; ‘expression of an intention to do harm’ is a secondary sense, which arose out of the notion of ‘putting pressure’ on someone. It came from a prehistoric base *thraut-, *threut-, *thrut-, which probably went back to Indo- European *trud- ‘push, press’ (source also of Latin trūdere ‘thrust’, from which English gets abstruse, intrude, etc, and probably also of English thrust).
=> abstruse, intrude
three: three: [OE] Three goes back to a prehistoric Indo- European *trejes, which also produced Greek treis, Latin trēs, Russian tri, Sanskrit tráyas, etc. Its Germanic descendant was *thrijiz, which has evolved into German drei, Dutch drie, Swedish and Danish tre, and English three. Amongst three’s many relations in English are treble, trellis [14] (etymologically something made from ‘three threads’), trinity, trio [18], triple, tripod [17] (etymologically something with ‘three feet’), trivial and possibly also travail and tribe.
=> drill, testament, third, travail, treble, trellis, tribe, trinity, trio, triple, tripod, trivet, trivial
threshold: threshold: [OE] The first element of threshold is identical with English thresh [OE]. This seems to go back ultimately to a prehistoric source that denoted ‘making noise’ (the apparently related Old Church Slavonic tresku meant ‘crash’, and Lithuanian has trešketi ‘crack, rattle’). By the time it reached Germanic, as *thresk-, it was probably being used for ‘stamp the feet noisily’, and it is this secondary notion of ‘stamping’ or ‘treading’ that lies behind threshold – as being something you ‘tread’ on as you go through a door. Thresh by the time it reached English had specialized further still, to mean ‘separate grains from husks by stamping’, and this later evolved to simply ‘separate grains from husks’. Thrash [OE], which originated as a variant of thresh, has taken the further semantic step to ‘beat, hit’.

It is not known where the second element of threshold came from.
=> thrash, thresh
thrift: thrift: see thrive
thrill: thrill: [13] Etymologically, thrill denotes ‘make a hole in’. It is a Middle English alteration of Old English thyrlian ‘pierce’, a derivative of thyrl ‘hole’ (source of the second syllable of nostril). And this in turn was formed from thurh ‘through’. The notion of ‘making a hole’ led in the 16th century to the metaphorical ‘pierce with emotion’, but the narrowing down of this to ‘fill with pleasure’ seems to be a comparatively recent development, from the late 19th century. Its earlier wider connotations are preserved in the derivative thriller ‘exciting story’ [19].
=> nostril, through
thrive: thrive: [13] Thrive was borrowed from Old Norse thrífask ‘grasp for oneself’, hence ‘prosper’, the reflexive form of thrífa ‘grasp, seize’ (whose origins are not known). The word’s semantic development from ‘grasp for oneself’ to ‘prosper’ was presumably inspired by the notion of ‘accumulating resources’. Thrift [13], borrowed from the Old Norse derivative thrift, originally meant ‘thriving’; the modern sense ‘frugality’ evolved in the 16th century – frugality being thought of as a prerequisite for prosperity.
=> thrift
throat: throat: [OE] Throat comes from a prehistoric Germanic base *thrut- or *thrūt-. This also produced Old English thrūtian ‘swell’, and a related base *strut- was the source of the now defunct Middle English strouten ‘bulge, swell’ (not to mention Dutch strot ‘throat’), so it has been speculated that the underlying etymological meaning of throat is ‘swollen part’ – an allusion no doubt to the bulge of the Adam’s apple. Throttle [14] is probably a derivative of throat.
=> throttle
throng: throng: [13] The etymological notion underlying throng is of ‘pressing together’. It was borrowed from Old Norse throng ‘crowd’, which went back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *thringg- ‘press’ (source also of German drang ‘crowd, pressure’ and dringen ‘press’). Amongst its non-Germanic relatives is Old Persian thraxta- ‘closely-packed’.