Etymology
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threaten (v.)

late 13c., "attempt to influence by menacing," from Old English þreatnian "to threaten" (see threat). Related: Threatened. Threatening in the sense of "portending no good" is recorded from 1520s.

Entries linking to threaten

threat (n.)

Old English þreat "crowd, troop," also "oppression, coercion, menace," related to þreotan "to trouble, weary," from Proto-Germanic *thrautam (source also of Dutch verdrieten, German verdrießen "to vex"), from PIE *treud- "to push, press squeeze" (source also of Latin trudere "to press, thrust," Old Church Slavonic trudu "oppression," Middle Irish trott "quarrel, conflict," Middle Welsh cythrud "torture, torment, afflict"). Sense of "conditional declaration of hostile intention" was in Old English.

updated on January 29, 2014

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Dictionary entries near threaten

thrall

thrash

thread

threadbare

threat

threaten

three

Three Rs

threefold

threesome

threnody

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