thill
/θɪl/ noun, proper noun
Forms thills fill
- noun One of the two long pieces of wood, extending before a vehicle, between which a horse is hitched; a shaft.
- noun (mining) The shallow stratum of underclay that lies under a seam of coal; the bottom of a coal-seam.
- proper noun A surname.
Etymology
From Middle English thille, thylle, from Old English þille (“board; floorboard; plank; stake; pole”), from Proto-West Germanic *þilljā, from Proto-Germanic *þiljǭ (“board; floorboard; deck”), from Proto-Indo-European *tel- (“plank; board”). Cognate with Dutch deel, German Low German Deel (> English deal (“plank”)), German Diele, Swedish tilja, Icelandic þilja. Akin to English theal (“board; plank”). Doublet of deal (etymology 3) and theal (dialectal).
Webster’s 1913
- noun One of the two long pieces of wood, extending before a vehicle, between which a horse is hitched; a shaft.
- noun The floor of a coal mine. Raymond. Thill coupling, a device for connecting the thill of a vehicle to the axle.
Etymology [OE. thille, AS. a board, plank, beam, thill; akin to a plank, D. deel a plank, floor, G. diele, OHG. dili, dilla, Icel. a plank, planking, a thwart, a wainscot, plank; cf. Skr. tala a level surface. *236. Cf. Fill a thill, Deal a plank.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “thill”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details