thurse
English
Alternative forms
- thrush, thrust (dialectal)
Etymology
From Middle English þurs, thurse, thursse, thyrce, thurs, thirs, from Old English þyrs (“giant, enchanter, demon, wizard”), from Proto-Germanic *þurisaz, *þursaz, *þursiz (“giant, name of the Þ-rune”), from Proto-Indo-European *tur-, *twer- (“to rotate, twirl, swirl, move”). Cognate with German Turse (“giant”), Danish tosse (“a fool, buffoon”), Norwegian tuss, tusse, tust (“goblin, kobold, elf, a dull fellow”), Icelandic þurs (“giant”).
Noun
thurse (plural thurses)
- (now chiefly dialectal) A giant; a gigantic spectre; an apparition.
- 2010, Stephan Grundy, Beowulf (Fiction), iUniverse, →ISBN, page 33:
- And yet he was also, though many generations separated them, distant cousin to the shining eoten-maid Geard, whom the god Frea Ing had seen from afar and wedded; and to Scatha, the fair daughter of the old thurse Theasa, who had claimed a husband from among the gods as weregild for her father's slaying: often, it was said, the ugliest eotens would sire the fairest maids.
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Anagrams
- sherut, suther
Middle English
Noun
thurse
- Alternative form of þurs