Threshold
/ˈθrɛʃ.hoʊld/noun
The strip of wood or stone at the bottom of a doorway, or the point of entry to a new state or condition.
Did you know?The first element is usually linked to Old English *þrescan* (“to thresh”), so the word may originally have referred to a floorboard made from threshed grain straw or grain-chaff, though the exact history is debated.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ters-
“to dry, to rub, to thresh”
Old English
OE
þrescold / þerscold
“a door-sill or threshold”
Middle English
ME
thresshhold / threshold
“the sill of a doorway; entrance”
Modern English
English
threshold
“the sill of a doorway; figuratively, a point of entry or beginning”