threshold

What it means

1. The lowermost part of a doorway that one crosses to enter; a sill.

   Near-synonym: doorstep

   Synonyms: doorsill, doorstep

2. broadlyAn entrance; the door or gate of a house.

   Shy. You that did voide your rume vpon my beard, / And foote me as you ſpurne a ſtranger curre / Ouer your threſhold, […]

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 166

   Synonyms: doorway, portal

3. broadlyAny end or boundary.

In a sentence

Near-synonym: doorstep

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*terh₁-“to rub, turn”
2. Proto-Germanic*þreskaną
3. Proto-Germanic*þreskudlaz
4. Old Englishþresċold, þerxold, þrexwold“doorsill, entryway”
5. Middle Englishthreschwolde
6. Englishthreshold

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 Bokmål terskel (“threshold”), Norwegian Nynorsk treskald (“threshold”), Swedish tröskel (“threshold”), dialectal Swedish träskvald (“threshold”), Icelandic þröskuldur (“threshold”). Pronunciations such as “thresh-hold” are un-etymological and result from analogy with hold.