travail

EnglishEdit

PronunciationEdit

enPR: trəˈvāl, IPA^(key): /tɹəˈveɪl/
Rhymes: -eɪl

Etymology 1Edit

Possible appearance of a Tripalium

From Middle English travail, from Old French travail (“suffering, torment”), from Vulgar Latin *tripalium (“an instrument of torture”), from Latin tripālis (“having or propped up by three stakes”).

NounEdit

travail (plural travails or travaux)

(literary) Arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship. [from 13th c.]
- 1597, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, Book V, §21:
  But as every thing of price, so this doth require travail.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 20, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
  Travell and pleasure, most unlike in nature, are notwithstanding followed together by a kind of I wot not what natural conjunction […].
- 1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber 2007, p. 38:
  He had thought of making a destiny for himself, through laborious and untiring travail.
- 2005, Tony Judt, “Culture Wars”, in Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945, London: Vintage Books, published 2010, →ISBN:
  And the British mandarin Left, like their contemporaries in the Foreign Office, had little time for the travails of the small countries between Germany and Russia, whom they had always regarded as something of a nuisance.
Specifically, the labor of childbirth. [from 13th c.]
- 1607–08, William Shakespeare (?), Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act III, Chorus:
  The lady shrieks and, well-a-near,
  
  Does fall in travail with her fear.
- 1611, King James Version, Genesis 38:27–28:
  And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb. And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first,
(obsolete, countable) An act of working; labor (US), labour (British). [14th-18th c.]
(obsolete) The eclipse of a celestial object. [17th c.]
Obsolete form of travel.
Alternative form of travois (“a kind of sled”)

Related termsEdit

► English terms derived from the PIE root *peh₂ǵ-‎ (0 c, 8 e)

TranslationsEdit

hard work

Catalan: tribulació (ca) f
Czech: dřina f, lopota f, námaha (cs) f

French: travail (fr) m, labeur (fr) m

labor of childbirth

Armenian: երկունք (hy) (erkunkʿ)
Old Armenian: երկն (erkn)

Catalan: part (ca) m
Czech: porod (cs) m
French: travail (fr) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

Dutch: (1) hard labeur, (2) werk arbeid, (3) barensweeën, (4) beproeving, smart,zielskwelling

ReferencesEdit

“travail” in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.
“travail” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2020.

Etymology 2Edit

From Middle English travailen, from Old French travaillier, from the noun (see above).

VerbEdit

travail (third-person singular simple present travails, present participle travailing, simple past and past participle travailed)

To toil.
- 1552, Hugh Latimer, "Fourth Sermon on the Lord's Prayer, Preached before Lady Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk":
  [A]ll slothful persons, which will not travail for their livings, do the will of the devil.
- 1611, King James Version, Job 15:20:
  The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
To go through the labor of childbirth.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, John XIV:
  A woman when she traveyleth hath sorowe, be cause her houre is come: but as sone as she is delivered off her chylde she remembreth no moare her anguysshe, for ioye that a man is borne in to the worlde.

TranslationsEdit

to toil

French: peiner (fr)

go through the labor of childbirth

Czech: rodit (cs) impf

French: être en travail, être en couches (fr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

Dutch: 1. hard zwoegen, slaven, 2. in barensnood verkeren

FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle French travail, from the singular form from Old French travail, from Vulgar Latin tripalium (“torture instrument”), from Latin tripālis (“having three stakes”). Compare Occitan trabalh, Catalan treball, English travail, Italian travaglio, Portuguese trabalho, Spanish trabajo.

The plural from Old French travauz, from travailz with l-vocalization before a consonant. The final -auz was later spelled -aux, and the sequence -au-, which once represented a diphthong, now represents an o sound.