thrapple

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English

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WOTD – 13 October 2020

Etymology

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The noun is derived from Late Middle English thropul, þropul (“trachea, windpipe”);[1] further etymology uncertain, but possibly a variant of throte-bolle (“laryngeal prominence, Adam’s apple; larynx; epiglottis; animal’s esophagus or neck; flesh covering throat of a deer”) [and other forms] (whence English throat-boll (obsolete)),[2][3] from Old English þrotbolla [and other forms], from þrote (“throat”) + bolla (“bowl”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow; to swell up”)).[4]

The verb is derived from the noun.[5]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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thrapple (plural thrapples)

  1. (chiefly Northern England, Northern Ireland, Scotland) The throat, especially the gullet or windpipe.
    • [1600, Al-Hassan ibn-Mohammed al-Wezaz al-Fasi [i.e., Leo Africanus], “A Briefe Relation Concerning the Dominions, Reuenues, Forces, and Maner of Gouernment of Sundry the Greatest Princes either Inhabiting within the Bounds of Africa, or at least Possessing Some Parts thereof, Translated, for the Most Part, out of Italian”, in John Pory, transl., edited by Robert Brown, The History and Description of Africa and of the Notable Things therein Contained, […] (Works Issued by the Hakluyt Society; no. XCIV), volume III, London: […] Hakluyt Society, […], published 1896, →OCLC, page 982:
      A greater quantitie of victuall is carried from Zeila, [...] and beastes also, as namely sheepe, [...] as also certaine other all white with tayles a fathome long, and writhen like a vine branche, hauing thropples vnder their throtes like bulles.
      Apparently a use of the word to refer to a wattle (“a fold of skin hanging from the neck”).]
    • 1759, Thomas Wallis, “COLT”, in The Farrier’s and Horseman’s Complete Dictionary: […], London: […] W. Owen, […]; and E. Baker, […], →OCLC, column 1:
      A broad piece of leather is then to be put round his neck; and the ends made faſt, by platting it, or ſome other way, at the withers, or before the wind-pipe, about two handfuls below the thrapple, betwixt the leather and his neck; [...]
    • 1781, [Helenus Scott], “The Little Woman in Great-Queen Street”, in The Adventures of a Rupee. […], London: […] J[ohn] Murray, […], published 1782, page 254:
      I hif a gude mind to ſwallow you, gin I kent your back widna ſtick in my thrapple.
    • 1800 December, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, edited by Kathleen Coburn, The Notebooks of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, volumes I (1794–1804: Text), Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2002, →ISBN, page 873:
      Sara sent twice for the measure of George's Neck—he wondered, Sara should be such a fool, she might have measured William's or Coleridge's, as all poets' Thropples were of one Size.
    • [1807, John Stagg, “Rosley Fair”, in Miscellaneous Poems, Some of which are in the Cumberland and Scottish Dialects, Wigton, Cumberland: […] R. Hetherton, →OCLC, page 141:
      Luok, leyke mad bulls they bang about, / Wi' shouts their thropples rivan, / Wheyle whup for smack the rabble rout, / Are yen owr tother drivan; [...]]
    • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter XII, in Rob Roy. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 254:
      Do you, Maister Francis, opine that ye will re-establish your father's credit by cutting your kinsman's thrapple, or getting your ain sneckit instead thereof in the College-yards of Glasgow?
    • 1829, [Robert Pearse Gillies], “The Voyage. (Continued.)”, in Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean. […] (Second Series), volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 66:
      The morse [i.e., walrus] is said to roar or bellow loudly, but the animal we slew made no outcry, [...] Nevertheless, the immense size of its larynx or thropple, which William dissected out and brought with him to England, seems to indicate vast powers of voice in his animal; [...]
    • 1875, E. R. Billings, “Pipes and Smokers. (Continued.)”, in Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce, […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 178:
      In the sentiment of the following lines on "A pipe of Tobacco" by John Usher, all lovers of the plant will heartily join: "Let the toper regale in his tankard of ale, / Or with alcohol moisten his thropple, / Only give me I pray, a good pipe of soft clay, / Nicely tapered, and thin in the stopple; / And I shall puff, puff, let who will say enough, / No luxury else I'm in lack o', / No malice I hoard, 'gainst Queen, Prince, Duke or Lord, / While I pull at my pipe of Tobacco. [..."]
    • 1889, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Summary of Events (’’continued’’)”, in The Master of Ballantrae. […], London, Paris: Cassell & Company, […], →OCLC, page 22:
      The Master—the deil's in their thrapples that should call him sae! it's Mr. Henry should be master now!
    • 1899, John Buchan, “Crabbed Age and Youth”, in A Lost Lady of Old Years: A Romance, London, New York, N.Y.: John Lane, The Bodley Head, →OCLC, book II, page 228:
      "God, my lads," he cried, "if I had just my fingers on your thrapples, I'd thraw them fine and send your gutsy sauls to the deil that begat them."
    • 1911, R[ichard] F[rederick] Meysey-Thompson, “Simple Ailments”, in The Horse: Its Origin and Development Combined with Stable Practice, London: Edward Arnold, →OCLC, page 289:
      There is one type of neck which so constantly results in roaring that it is known in Yorkshire as a "roarer's neck," and sooner or later the horse which is so shaped is almost certain to fall a victim to the complaint. The neck in question is a strong thick one, with the head carried high, but there is a peculiar outward curve in front, somewhat resembling that of a fallow deer, with an unusually thick thropple, the formation of which, no doubt, sustains a constant strain on the nerve, which eventually fails in consequence.
    • a. 1919, F[rederic] W[illiam] Moorman, “Tales of a Grandmother: I. The Tree of Knowledge”, in More Tales of the Ridings, London: Elkin Mathews, […], published 1920, →OCLC; republished as More Tales of the Ridings (EBook #18260)‎[1], [United States]: Project Gutenberg, 2006 May 4, archived from the original on 4 November 2016:
      'He'll do nowt o' the sort,' I answered; 'and he wi' a hoast in his thropple like a badly cow. I sudn't be surprised if he were dead by Chrissamas.'
    • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon [pseudonym; James Leslie Mitchell], “Ploughing”, in Sunset Song (A Scots Quair; 1), Edinburgh: Canongate Books, published 2008, →ISBN, page 32:
      And she said it, she felt like a hen with a stone in its thrapple, [...]
    • 1985, Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian […] , →OCLC:
      [T]he old man raised the axe and split the head of John Joel Glanton to the thrapple.
    • 2014, Peter Ackroyd, “Sudden Flashings”, in The History of England: Volume III: Civil War, London: Pan Books, published 2015, →ISBN, page 173:
      When the bishop came out, the women shouted 'get the thrapple out of him' or cut his windpipe; he barely escaped with his life.

Alternative forms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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thrapple (third-person singular simple present thrapples, present participle thrappling, simple past and past participle thrappled)

  1. (transitive, chiefly Northern England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, dated) To strangle, to throttle.
    • 1827 September, “The Monkey. [From Blackwood’s Magazine.]”, in Oliver Oldschool [pseudonym; John Elihu Hall], editor, The Port Folio, volume II (volume XXII overall), number 293, Philadelphia, Pa.: […] Harrison Hall, →OCLC, page 239:
      Then Mr. Weft began his tale, how he had been collared and well nigh thrappled in his ain shop; [...]
    • 1835, “Chapter V. 1637.”, in Dionysius Lardner, editor, The Cabinet Cyclopædia. [...] History. England. […], volume V, London: […] Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, […]; and John Taylor, […], →OCLC, page 177:
      A Scotch writer of the time [Sir James Balfour, 1st Baronet, of Denmilne and Kinnaird] has handed down, for the admiration of successive ages, "the renowned Christian valyancie of those godly women," regretting only that the bishop of Edinburgh escaped being "sticked" or "thrappled‡," by their pious hands, which unfortunately "were not as active as their minds were willing." [Footnote ‡: Strangled.]
    • 1862, M[atthew] Archdeacon, chapter XVI, in The Priest Hunter: An Irish Tale of the Penal Times, Dublin, London: James Duffy, […], →OCLC, page 168:
      We'll now have plinty o' time for the throopers, though I swore like a Trojan through thick an' thin (an' nearly got myself thrappled (throttled) for my pains be that powerful villain Fergus), that the fun ud be spilet, af the attack wasn't to-night.
    • 1862, “Literary and Domestic Life. 1832–37.”, in [Mary Wilson] Gordon, compiler, ‘Christopher North’: A Memoir of John Wilson […], volume II, Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, →OCLC, page 225:
      Forbye thrappling her, he had bit until the jugular; and she had lost sae meikle bluid, that you hae eaten her the noo roasted, instead o' her made intil soup.
    • 1868, J[ohn] C[hristopher] Atkinson, “Thropple”, in A Glossary of the Cleveland Dialect: Explanatory, Derivative, and Critical, London: John Russell Smith, […], →OCLC, page 531:
      "They throppled t' ane t' other;" took each other by the throat.
    • 1872, William Freeland, “A Visit”, in Love and Treason. […], volume II, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 23:
      Wad ye believe't, I had the greatest ado ance to keep him frae thrappling a puir cat?
    • 1875 December 9, Miss Powley, “Art. XXXI.—Past and Present among the Northern Fells. No. II.”, in Richard S[aul] Ferguson, editor, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian & Archæological Society, volume II, Kendal, Westmorland: […] T. Wilson, published 1876, →OCLC, page 370:
      And oft we fratched and fret about, and throppled udder sair, / Upon the whol' the fell hes meade mischief for ivver mair, [...]

Alternative forms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “thropul, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “thrōte-bolle, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  3. ^ “thrapple, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2017; “thrapple, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  4. ^ “† throat-boll, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2017.
  5. ^ “thrapple, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2017.

Further reading

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Scots

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Etymology

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Uncertain.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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thrapple (plural thrapples)

  1. windpipe; throat, gullet
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