English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English thurs, thurse, thursse, thyrce, thirs, from Old English þyrs (giant, enchanter, demon, wizard), from Proto-West Germanic *þuris, from Proto-Germanic *þurisaz (giant, name of the Þ-rune), from Proto-Indo-European *tur-, *twer- (to rotate, twirl, swirl, move). Cognate with German Turse (giant), Danish tosse (a fool, buffoon), Norwegian tuss, tusse, tust (goblin, kobold, elf, a dull fellow), Icelandic þurs (giant).

Noun

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thurse (plural thurses)

  1. (now chiefly dialectal) A giant; a gigantic spectre; an apparition.
    • 2010, Stephan Grundy, Beowulf[1] (Fiction), iUniverse, →ISBN, page 33:
      And yet he was also, though many generations separated them, distant cousin to the shining eoten-maid Geard, whom the god Frea Ing had seen from afar and wedded; and to Scatha, the fair daughter of the old thurse Theasa, who had claimed a husband from among the gods as weregild for her father's slaying: often, it was said, the ugliest eotens would sire the fairest maids.

Anagrams

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Middle English

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Noun

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thurse

  1. Alternative form of thurs