thorp arch. and Hist.
(θɔːp)
Forms: α. 1 ðrop (þrep), 1–5 þrop, (4–5 throop-e, þroup), 4, 9 dial. throp (5 thrope). β. 1–2, 4–5 þorp, 5– thorpe, 5, 7– thorp.
[OE. and ME. þrop and þorp hamlet, village, farm, or estate; Com. Teut. = OFris. thorp, therp village, mod.Fris. terp village, village-mound (see terp1); OS. thorp (MLG., LG., MDu., Du. dorp, LG. and EFris. dörp); OHG. (MHG., Ger.) dorf village (locally ‘gathering of people, meeting’); ON. þorp village, hamlet, farmstead (Norw. torp, Sw. torp cottage, little farm, Da. torp farmstead, hamlet, borough), Goth. þaurp estate, land, field:—OTeut. *þorpo{supm}. Ulterior etymology doubtful; original sense and its development in the Teutonic languages not clear.
ON. has (app. thence derived) þyrpast to crowd, throng, þyrping crowd; and þorp is by many referred to same root as L. turba, Gr. τύρβη crowd, tumult. Others compare L. tribus tribe, and OCelt. *treb subdivision of a people, W. tref town. For other suggested cognates, cf. Kluge, Franck, Doornkaat-Koolman.]
A hamlet, village, or small town; in ME. esp. an agricultural village: see quots.
Not a frequent word in OE., being chiefly found in Glosses and Vocabularies, in form þrop, which was also the prevailing form in ME. down to 1400. þorp appears once in late OE. and in the north in 14th c., and may really be due to Norse influence. In various forms as Thorpe, Throop, Thrupp, the word occurs as a place-name, and it is a frequent second element in these in the forms -thorpe, -thrup, -trup, chiefly in the Danelaw district. It appears to have been a ‘common noun’ to Langland and Chaucer; but in Caxton to be a literalism of translation. As a separate word it has been used occasionally from 1600, but is app. only literary or archaic, rarely dialectal: see Eng. Dial. Dict.
| α c 725 Corpus Gloss. (O.E.T.) 557 Conpetum [= cross-ways, Carfax], tuun, þrop. a 800 Erfurt Gloss. 307 Conpetum, tuun, vel ðrop. a 1000 ælfric Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 147/5 Fundus [= farm, piece of land], þrop. a 1000 Ags. Gloss. ibid. 207/14 Competum..i. uilla, uel þingstow, uel þrop. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 89 Bethfage, Swo hatte þe þrop þe preste one wunien, bi sides ierusalem. c 1350 Will. Palerne 2141 To seche eche cite & alle smale þropes. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. ii. 47 For lewede, for lerede, for laborers of þropes [v.rr. þrepis, þorpes]. 1393 Ibid. C. i. 219 As barouns & burgeis and bondemen of þroupes [v.rr. þropus, þropes, thorpys]. c 1386 Chaucer Wife's T. 15 Citees, burghes, castels, hye toures, Thropes, bernes, shipnes, dayeryes, This maketh that ther been no ffairyes. ― Clerk's T. 143 Noght fer..There stood a throope [2 MSS., throop 1, thrope 3, thorpt 1] of site delitable, In which that poure folk of that village, Hadden hir beestes and hir herbergage. c 1440 [see β]. |
| β a 1122 O.E. Chron. an. 963 (Laud MS.), Sce. Petres mynstre Medeshamstede..and ealle þa þorpes þe ðærto lin. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1178 He wast wyth werre þe wones of þorpes. c 1381 Chaucer Parl. Foules 350 (MS. Gg. 4. 27) The kok that orloge is of thorpis lyte. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 492/1 Tho(r)pe, thrope, lytylle towne. 1481 Caxton Reynard viii. (Arb.) 15 The worde anone sprange oueral in the thorpe [Orig. Flem. die mare die spranck over al den dorp]. 1485 ― St. Wenefryde 18 He reteynynge his felawe with hym abode that nyght in a thorpe. 1600 Fairfax Tasso xii. xxxii. 219 Within a little thorpe I staid at last. 1613 W. Browne Brit. Past. ii. iii, About whose Thorps that night curs'd Limos went. 1814 Wordsw. Excursion viii. 101 Welcome, wheresoe'er he came—Among the tenantry of thorpe and vill. 1855 Tennyson Brook 29, I hurry down..By twenty thorps, a little town, And half a hundred bridges. 1864 ― En. Ard. (end), The little thorp had seldom seen A costlier funeral. |
Hence
† ˈthorpsman, a villager.
Obs. rare.
| 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. To Rdr., The inbred stock of more homely women and less filching Thorps-men. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Thorpsmen, villagers. Old local print. |