different between troop vs throng

English

Etymology

Attested in English since 1545, from French troupe (back-formation of troupeau, diminutive of Medieval Latin troppus "flock") and Middle French trouppe (from Old French trope (“band, company, troop”)), both of Germanic origin from Frankish *thorp (“assembly, gathering”), from Proto-Germanic *þurp? (“village, land, estate”), from Proto-Indo-European *treb- (“dwelling, settlement”). Doublet of troupe, and possibly also of thorp and dorp.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /t?u?p/
• (US) IPA^(key): /t?up/
• Rhymes: -u?p
• Homophone: troupe

Noun

troop (plural troops)

1. (collective) A collection of people; a number; a multitude (in general).
2. (military) A small unit of cavalry or armour commanded by a captain, corresponding to a platoon or company of infantry.
3. A detachment of soldiers or police, especially horse artillery, armour, or state troopers.
4. (chiefly in the plural) A group of soldiers; military forces.
5. (nonstandard) A company of actors; a troupe.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of W. Coxe to this entry?)

6. (Scouting) A chapter of a national girl or boy scouts organization, consisting of one or more patrols of 6 to 8 youngsters each.
   • Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell (1920) Aids To Scoutmastership?^[1], page 6: “It is the Patrol System that makes the Troop, and all Scouting for that matter, a real co-operative effort.”
7. (collective) A group of baboons.
8. A particular roll of the drum; a quick march.
9. (mycology) Mushrooms that are in a close group but not close enough to be called a cluster.

Derived terms

• troop carrier
• trooper
• troop horse
• troopship
• troop train

Translations

Verb

troop (third-person singular simple present troops, present participle trooping, simple past and past participle trooped)

1. To move in numbers; to come or gather in crowds or troops.
2. To march on; to go forward in haste.
3. To move or march as if in a crowd.

Derived terms

• troop the colour (British, military)

Translations

See also

• Appendix:English collective nouns

References

• “troop” in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “troop”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• Porto, Proto, porto, porto-, proot, proto, proto-, tropo, tropo-

Dutch

Pronunciation

Noun

troop f (plural tropen, diminutive troopje n)

1. (music, literature, linguistics) trope

English

Etymology

From Middle English throng, thrang, from Old English þrang, ?eþrang (“crowd, press, tumult”), from Proto-Germanic *þrangw?, *þrangw? (“throng”), from *þrangwaz (“pressing, narrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *trenk?- (“to beat; pound; hew; press”). Cognate with Dutch drang, German Drang. Compare also German Gedränge (“throng”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: thr?ng, IPA^(key): /????/
• (US) enPR: thrông, thr?ng, IPA^(key): /????/, /????/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

throng (plural throngs)

1. A group of people crowded or gathered closely together.

   Synonyms: crowd, multitude

   • 1939, Ammianus Marcellinus, John Carew Rolfe, Ammianus Marcellinus, Volume 1, Harvard University Press, page 463:

     Here, mingled with the Persians, who were rushing to the higher ground with the same effort as ourselves, we remained motionless until sunrise of the next day, so crowded together that the bodies of the slain, held upright by the throng, could nowhere find room to fall, and that in front of me a soldier with his head cut in two, and split into equal halves by a powerful sword stroke, was so pressed on all sides that he stood erect like a stump.
2. A group of things; a host or swarm.

Translations

Verb

throng (third-person singular simple present throngs, present participle thronging, simple past and past participle thronged)

1. (transitive) To crowd into a place, especially to fill it.
2. (intransitive) To congregate.
   • c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act II scene i^[3]:

     […] I have seen the dumb men throng to see him and / The blind to bear him speak: […]

3. (transitive) To crowd or press, as persons; to oppress or annoy with a crowd of living beings.

   • Much people followed him, and thronged him.

Related terms

• thring

Translations

Adjective

throng (comparative more throng, superlative most throng)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) Filled with persons or objects; crowded.
2. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) Busy; hurried.
   • 1903, Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, ch 59:

     Mr Shaw was very civil; he said he was rather throng just now, but if Ernest did not mind the sound of hammering he should be very glad of a talk with him.