type of songbird, Old English þyrsce (related to throstle), from Proto-Germanic *thruskjon (cf. Old Norse þröstr, Norwegian trost, Old High German drosca), from PIE *trozdo- (cf. Latin turdus, Lithuainian strazdas "thrush," Middle Irish truid, Welsh drudwy "starling," Old Church Slavonic drozgu, Russian drozdu).
throat disease, 1660s, probably from a Scandinavian source (cf. Norwegian, Danish trøske, Swedish torsk), but its roots and original meaning are unclear.