Thor Mythol.
(θɔː(r))
[a. ON. þórr:—þunro{supz} thunder: see Thursday.]
The proper name of the strongest and bravest of the Scandinavian deities, the god of thunder, whose weapon was a hammer; his belt doubled his strength; hence in allusive use.
| a 1020 Wulfstan Hom. xlii. (21 a) Napier 197 Þór and Owðen, þe hæðene men herjað swiðe. 1605 Verstegan Dec. Intell. 74 Description of the great Idol Thor. 1817 Byron Beppo lxi, Crush'd was Napoleon by the northern Thor, Who knock'd his army down with icy hammer. 1841 Emerson Ess. Ser. i. ii. (1876) 63 Let us enter into the state of war, and wake Thor and Woden, courage and constancy, in our Saxon breasts. 1898 Daily News 6 May 8/1 The din of a thousand Thors at their forges, the hubbub of the workshop. |
b. attrib., as Thor-hammerer; Thor-like adj.; Thor-barley (see quot. 1755).
| 1755 tr. Pontoppidan's Nat. Hist. Norway i. iv. §5. 105 This barley..the peasants term Thor-barley, possibly from the opinion of the ancients, who..imagined this corn to be fit for the banquets of the gods. 1865 De Morgan in Athenæum 14 Oct. 729/2 The Thor-hammerer does nothing but grumble. 1866 M. C. Tyler Glimpses Eng. (1898) 159 The splendor of his [John Bright's] Thor-like eloquence. |