throttle

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to choke or strangle; to control the flow of fuel or power

   He throttled back the engine as the runway came into view.

Simplified etymology

Throttle developed from Old English throat. In the mid-16th century the noun was another word for the throat, while the verb came to mean stopping someone from breathing by squeezing the throat. Its mechanical sense, a valve controlling the flow of fuel, dates from the early 19th century.

Probably a frequentative of throat (Old English throte), with the diminutive/iterative suffix -le; the mechanical sense (valve controlling fuel) developed in the 19th century.

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