A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 2001 (DOST Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Throp(p)ill, Thrappell, n. Also: throppil, thropyll, throple, thrap(p)le. [e.m.E. throple, throppel (both 1562), throppell (1607), thropple (1690), possibly f. Throt-boll n.] The windpipe; the throat, generally.(a) 1375 Barb. vii 584 (C).
He … hyt the formast in the hals Till throppill [E. thropill] and vassand ȝeid in twa c1420 Wynt. ii 1000 (E) (see b below).
Throppillis 1460 Hay Alex. 1401.
Alexander his speir in reste has cast That on the thropill he hit him sic a straik [etc.] c1500 Interl. Droich 100.
Thair is nocht thair bot [tak] and slae Cutthroppillis & mak quyte 1533 Bell. Livy I 59/9.
He straik this thrid brothir … in the throppil [L. iugulo defigit] 1575 Glasgow B. Rec. I 37.
In taking of him be the thropill and wesand and castyng of him to the erd c1590 Fraser Wigtown (1877) 392.
His vyif said scho sould haiff pullit the throppill out of hir and cassin it on the gait 16.. Hist. Kennedy 49.
Maid ane passage to the bluid to descend doun about the hairtt throw the condeitt of the throppill 1637 Rothes Affairs Kirk App. 199.
Fy, if I could get the throple out of him 1681 Colvil Whig's Suppl. (1681) i 51.
Some have their faces and their throples All scratched with tobacco stoples(b) 1604 Ellon Presb. 48.
[He] thairefter cam girning and graiging, putting baith his hands on her thrappell and wiesand 1659 Dunferm. Kirk S. 54.
She heard Jonet Mihie say … she wald rug out his thraple 1680 Sempill P. 52/24.
The laydron [sc. Poverty] pow'd me by the thrapple ?1660–90 J. Walwood in P. Gillespie Rulers Sins (1718) 14.
Many are sleeping, and the devil is drawing the very thrapple out of them
b. attrib.Thropyll boll, the Adam's apple. Thropill bone, ? erron. for thropill boue, var. of prec.c1420 Wynt. ii 1004.
Stillely walde he to thame ga And scheyre thare thropyll boll [E. throppillis, C. throt bollis, W. throt boll] in twa 1614 Inverness Rec. II 121.
Ȝe … tuick the said Margrat be the gorget and thropill bone and keist hir to the ground, and thairbe stopit hir braithe till sche deiit
