thivel, thible Sc. and north. dial.
(ˈθɪv(ə)l, ˈθaɪv(ə)l; ˈθɪb(ə)l, ˈθaɪb(ə)l)
Forms: α. 5 thyvelle, 6 thyvil, 7– thivel, (9 dial. thyvel, theevil, thieval, etc.); β. 7– thible, (9 dial. thibble, thybel, etc.); γ. 9 dial. thavel, thaivel, thabble, etc.; δ. 9 Sc. theedle; for other forms see E.D.D.
[Of obscure origin and history. The forms with v are app. the original, being found two centuries earlier, and used both in Scotland and the north of England, while the later forms with b are confined to n. Engl. The stem vowel is found variously as (ɪ), (iː), (ɛ), (eː), (a), (ɑː), (ɔː), and (aɪ); the earliest spellings have y (? ɪ or iː), but the phonological development is not easy to trace.
In form, thī̆vel seems to correspond to OE. þyfel ‘bush, leafy plant’, but no links of connexion between this and the modern sense have been found. In its various current forms the word is in use from N. of Scotl. to S. Lancashire, W. and E. Yorksh.; this localization suggests a Norse origin, and it has been referred to OIcel. þefja (ˈθɛvja); but this is a very rare word of doubtful standing, and in any case meant ‘to thicken by beating or stamping’ rather than ‘to stir’. The actual ONorse name for a stirring-stick was þvara, between which and thivel there is of course no connexion.]
1. A stick for stirring porridge or anything cooked in a pot; a potstick. (See also quot. 1876, γ.)
| α 1483 Cath. Angl. 383/2 A Thyvelle, spatula, vertimella. 1570 Levins Manip. 126/17 A Thyuil, rubicula. 1768 Ross Helenore 138 The thivel on the pottage pan, Shall strick my hour to rise. 1785 Spanish Rivals 8 He's a queer stick to make a thivel on. 1815 G. Beattie John o' Arnha (1826) 35 An' ay's they steer'd them wi' a thivel, They mummelt ‘crowdy for the devil’. 1880 Edwards Mod. Scot. Poets I. 362 Soup ladles and theevils. 1889 Barrie Window in Thrums vi, Nearly a foot having been cut..from the original..to make a porridge thieval. 1894 Heslop Nthbld. Gloss., Thivel, Thybel, a round stick,..about fifteen inches long and three-quarters of an inch in diameter; used to stir porridge. |
| β 1674 Ray N.C. Words, A Thible or Thivel, a Stick to stirre a Pot. 1764 E. Moxon Eng. Housew. (ed. 9) 109 With a paste-pin or thible stir in your flour to the butter. 1847 E. Brontë Wuthering Heights xiii, The quicker the thible ran round..the faster the handfuls of meal fell into the water. 1863 E. Waugh Lancash. Songs 54 Wi' th' edge o' th porridge thible [rime Bible]. |
| γ 1876 Whitby Gloss., Thabble, the plug in the leaden milk-trough, which draws out and lets off the milk, while the cream is left behind. |
| δ 1864 A. Leighton Myst. Leg. Edinb. (1886) 68 The stirring utensil called a ‘theedle’. 1884 C. Rogers Soc. Life Scot. I. vii. 233 Stirred with a wooden spurtle or theedle. |
† 2. = dibble n. Obs. (
perh. an error in
ray).
| 1691 Ray N.C. Words, Thible, Thivel... Also a dibble, or setting-stick. Hence 1787 in Grose Provinc. Gloss. |