Etymology

thrush

T1H4R1U1S1H4

Today it means: Any of numerous species of songbirds of the cosmopolitan family Turdidae, such as the song thrush, mistle thrush, bluebird, and American robin. Full definition →

Middle English thrusche ← Old English þrysċe ← Proto-Germanic *þruskijǭ
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

thrush · noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*trosdos“thrush”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*þrauskǭ
  3. Old English · inherited fromþræsċe
  4. Proto-Germanic · derived from*þruskō
  5. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*þruskijǭ
  6. Old English · inherited fromþrysċe
  7. Middle English · inherited fromthrusche
  8. English todaythrush

From Middle English thrusche, þrusch, þresche, from a combination of Old English þrysċe (from Proto-Germanic *þruskijǭ, a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *þruskō) and Old English þræsċe (from Proto-Germanic *þrauskǭ and/or *þrastuz); all from Proto-Indo-European *trosdos (“thrush”). Cognate with German Drossel, Old Norse þrǫstr, Latin turdus, Lithuanian strazdas (“thrush”), Middle Irish truid, Welsh drudwy (“starling”), Old Church Slavonic дрозгъ (drozgŭ), Russian дрозд (drozd).

thrush · noun2

Uncertain, though likely not related to the "bird" sense of Etymology 1; perhaps compare Icelandic þröstur, Danish torsk, Norwegian trøske. Perhaps also related to Old French fourchette (“frog of a horse's hoof”).

Thrush · proper noun3

English surname from the noun thrush.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*trosdos all →

throstle

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.