threshold

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The floor of a doorway, which you step over to enter a room or building.

   She paused on the threshold before stepping inside.

2. 2
   noun

   The point at which something new is about to begin.

   The country stood on the threshold of a new era.

3. 3
   noun

   The level at which something starts to happen or take effect.

   Her pain threshold is remarkably high.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Threshold is an Old English compound whose first element is related to thresh in the Germanic sense “to tread.” The origin of its second element remains unknown.

From Middle English threschwolde, threscholde, from Old English þresċold, þerxold, þrexwold (“doorsill, entryway”), from Proto-Germanic *þreskudlaz, *þreskūþlijaz, *þreskwaþluz, from Proto-Germanic *þreskaną, *þreskwaną (“to thresh, (originally) to tread”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, turn”). Cognate with Low German Drüssel (“threshold”), dialectal German Drischaufel, Drissufle, Trüschübel (“threshold”), Danish tærskel (“threshold”), Norwegian terskel (“threshold”), Swedish tröskel (“threshold”), dialectal Swedish träskvald (“threshold”), Icelandic þröskuldur (“threshold”). Pron…

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary