Etymology

thresher

T1H4R1E1S1H4E1R1

Today it means: Anything or anyone that threshes. Full definition →

First used 1880sMiddle English threschere ← Old English þrescan ← Proto-Germanic *þreskaną
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*terh₁-der.?
  2. Proto-Germanic*þreskaną
  3. Old Englishþrescan
  4. Middle Englishthreschen
  5. Middle Englishthreschere
  6. English todaythresher

From Middle English threschere; equivalent to thresh + -er. The shark's tail is thought to resemble the implement.

First known use, by meaning

  • from 1880s Ellipsis of thresher shark.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.