Thole
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /θəʊl/
- US IPA: /θoʊl/
Origin 1
From Middle English tholen, tholien, from Old English þolian ("to thole, endure, suffer, undergo"), from Proto-Germanic *þuljanÄ… ("to suffer"), from Proto-Indo-European *telhâ‚‚- ("to bear, support, suffer"). Cognate with Middle Low German dÅlen ("to endure"), Middle High German doln ("to bear, suffer, allow"), Danish tÃ¥le ("to tolerate"), Norwegian tola ("to tolerate"), Swedish tÃ¥la ("to tolerate"), Latin tollÅ ("to cancel, lift off, remove"), Latin tolerÅ ("to bear, endure") and Albanian ndal ("to stop, hold") from dal ("exit, leave; fig. to manage, succeed, endure").
Full definition of thole
Verb
- (intransitive) To suffer.
- 14th c, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Frere's Tale, , 1840, Alexander Chalmers, Samuel Johnson (editors), The Works of the English Poets from Chaucer to Cowper, Volume 1, page 56,"Heit scot, heit, brok, what, spare ye for the stones?
The fend (quod he) you fecche, body and bones,
As ferforthly as ever ye were foled,
So mochel wo, as I have with you tholed.
The devil have al, bothe hors, and cart, and hay.†- 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses Chapter , Seventy beds keeps he there teeming mothers are wont that they lie for to thole and bring forth bairns hale so God’s angel to Mary quoth.
- (transitive, now Scotland, Northern Ireland, Northern England) To endure, to tolerate, to put up with.
- 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song, Polygon 2006 (A Scots Quair), p. 44:But then they heard an awful scream that made them leap to their feet, it was as though mother were being torn and torn in the teeth of beasts and couldn't thole it longer ….
- 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate 2012, p. 107:While they were enjoying their meal and placidly tholing the cacophony from the wireless set, they saw the first of the Ardmore workers arrive in the café.
Origin 2
From Middle English, from Old English þol ("thole, oar-pin"), from Proto-Germanic *þullaz, *þullŠ("thole, beam"), from Proto-Indo-European *tūl-, *twel- ("sphere, bush"). Cognate with Dutch dol ("thole"), German Dolle ("oar-lock, thole"), Danish toll ("thole"). Extra-Germanic cognates include Albanian thel ("a big nail, a clapper").