- travail (n.)
- "labor, toil," mid-13c., from O.Fr. travail "suffering or painful effort, trouble" (12c.), from travailler "to toil, labor," originally "to trouble, torture," from V.L. *tripaliare "to torture," from *tripalium (in L.L. trepalium) "instrument of torture," probably from L. tripalis "having three stakes" (from tria, tres "three" + palus "stake"), which sounds ominous, but the exact notion is obscure. The verb is recorded from c.1300.