different between shore vs threshold

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: shô, IPA^(key): /???/
• (General American) enPR: shôr, IPA^(key): /???/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: sh?r?, IPA^(key): /?o(?)?/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /?o?/
• Rhymes: -??(?)
• Homophone: sure (accents with the pour–poor merger); Shaw (non-rhotic accents with the horse–hoarse merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English schore, from Old English *s?ora (attested as s?or- in placenames), from Proto-Germanic *skurô (“rugged rock, cliff, high rocky shore”). Possibly related to Old English s?ieran (“to cut”), which survives today as English shear.

Cognate with Middle Dutch scorre (“land washed by the sea”), Middle Low German schor (“shore, coast, headland”), Middle High German schorre ("rocky crag, high rocky shore"; > German Schorre, Schorren (“towering rock, crag”)), and Limburgish sjaor (“riverbank”). Maybe connected with Norwegian Bokmål skjær.

Noun

shore (plural shores)

1. Land adjoining a non-flowing body of water, such as an ocean, lake or pond.

   • the fruitful shore of muddy Nile
2. (from the perspective of one on a body of water) Land, usually near a port.

Usage notes

• Generally, only the largest of rivers, which are often estuaries, are said to have shores.
• Rivers and other flowing bodies of water are said to have banks.
• River bank(s) outnumbers River shore(s) about 200:3 at COCA.

Hyponyms

• (land adjoining a large body of water): beach, headland, coast

Derived terms

Related terms

• longshoreman
• shorage

Translations

Verb

shore (third-person singular simple present shores, present participle shoring, simple past and past participle shored)

1. (obsolete) To set on shore.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Middle Dutch schooren (“to prop up, support”) and Middle Low German schore (“to shovel, sweep”). It is of uncertain origin, but has been found in some other Germanic languages. Compare Old Norse skorða (“piece of timber set up as a support”).

Noun

shore (plural shores)

1. A prop or strut supporting the weight or flooring above it.

   The shores stayed upright during the earthquake.

Verb

shore (third-person singular simple present shores, present participle shoring, simple past and past participle shored)

1. (transitive, without up) To provide with support.
2. (usually with up) To reinforce (something at risk of failure).

   My family shored me up after I failed the GED.

   The workers were shoring up the dock after part of it fell into the water.

Synonyms

• (without up): reinforce, strengthen, support, buttress
• (with up): prop up, bolster

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

See shear.

Verb

shore

1. simple past tense of shear

Etymology 4

Noun

shore (plural shores)

1. (Obsolete except in Hiberno-English) A sewer.

Etymology 5

Perhaps a form of score, or another form of sure, equivalent to assure.

Verb

shore (third-person singular simple present shores, present participle shoring, simple past and past participle shored)

1. (Scotland, archaic) To warn or threaten.
2. (Scotland, archaic) To offer.

References

Anagrams

• H-O-R-S-E, H.O.R.S.E., HORSE, Horse, RSeOH, Rohes, hoers, horse, hoser, shero, shoer

English

Etymology

From Middle English threschwolde, threscholde, from Old English þres?old, þerxold, þrexwold (“doorsill, entryway”), from Proto-Germanic *þreskudlaz, *þresk?þlijaz, *þreskwaþluz, from Proto-Germanic *þreskan?, *þreskwan? (“to thresh”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh?- (“to rub, turn”). Cognate with Low German Drüssel (“threshold”), dialectal German Drischaufel, Drissufle, Trüschübel (“threshold”), Danish tærskel (“threshold”), Swedish tröskel (“threshold”), dialectal Swedish träskvald (“threshold”), Icelandic þröskuldur (“threshold”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???e?(h)??ld/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?????(h)o?ld/

Noun

threshold (plural thresholds)

1. The bottom-most part of a doorway that one crosses to enter; a sill.
2. (by extension) An entrance; the door or gate of a house.
3. (by extension) Any end or boundary.
4. (figuratively) The outset of something; the point of entry, or the beginning of an action.
   • 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xi:

     I arrived at last, did obeisance to my uncle, and told him everything. He thought it over and said: ' […] At the threshold of death, how dare I give you permission to go to England, to cross the seas? But I will not stand in your way. It is your mother's permission which really matters. If she permit you, then godspeed! Tell her I will not interfere. You will go with my blessings.'

5. (aviation) The start of the landing area of a runway.
6. (engineering) The quantitative point at which an action is triggered, especially a lower limit.
7. The wage or salary at which income tax becomes due.
8. The point where one mentally or physically is vulnerable in response to provocation or to particular things in general. As in emotions, stress, or pain.

Derived terms

• thresholding
• thresholdless
• thresholdlike

(Expressions:)

• displaced threshold
• Micawber threshold
• threshold braking
• threshold effect
• threshold potential
• threshold worker

Antonyms

• (bottom-most part of a doorway): lintel

Translations