throe

/θɹəʊ/

Etymology

The noun is probably derived partly: * from Middle English throu, throwe (“(chiefly in the plural) uterine contraction during the birth of a child; pain experienced while giving birth; suffering; a pain; emotional distress, anxiety”) [and other forms], perhaps from: ** Old English þrawu (rare), a variant of þrēa (“affliction, torment; disaster; oppression; a rebuke; severity; threat”), from Proto-West Germanic *þrau, from Proto-Germanic *þrawō (“longing; suffering”), from Proto-Indo-European *trewh₁-; and ** Old English þrōwian (“to endure, suffer”), from Proto-Germanic *þrōwijaną, probably from *þrawō (see above); and ** Old Norse þrá (“longing, yearning”), from Proto-Germanic *þrawō (see above); and * from Middle English throuen (“to endure distress, suffer; to be ill, to have a fever; t

Why this word is great

THROE — [Noun] A severe pang or spasm of pain, especially experienced during childbirth or at the point of death. From Middle English throu, throwe, partly from Old English þrawu (variant of þrēa, "affliction, torment"), from Proto-Germanic *þrawō ("longing; suffering"), and influenced by Old English þrōwian ("to suffer") and Old Norse þrá ("longing"). Unlike "pang" (a fleeting stab) or "anguish" (a slow erosion of the spirit), "throe" is violence condensed into rhythm: the contraction that bends the body double, the death rattle that twists the sheets, the shudder of a heart laboring against its own surrender. It is pain not as event but as process—a reminder that even agony has its cadence, and suffering, its grammar.

noun

A severe pang or spasm of pain, especially one experienced when the uterus contracts during childbirth, or when a person is about to die.“O man haue mind of that laſt bitter throw; / For as the tree does fall, ſo lyes it euer low.”
A severe pang or spasm of pain, especially one experienced when the uterus contracts during childbirth, or when a person is about to die.; The pain of labour or childbirth; the suffering of death.“As if their own indignant earth, / Which gave the sons of England birth, / Had felt their blood upon her brow, / And shuddering with a mother's throe, / Had turned every drop of blood, / By which her face had been bedewed / To an accent unwithstood, / As if her heart had cried aloud: […]”
Any severe pang or spasm, especially an outburst of feeling; a paroxysm.“Commend me to them, / And tell them, that to eaſe them of their greefes, / Their feares of Hoſtile ſtrokes, their Aches loſſes, / Their pangs of Loue, with other incident throwes / That Natures fragile Veſſell doth ſuſtaine / In lifes vncertaine voyage, I will ſome kindnes do them, […]”
A hard struggle, especially one associated with the beginning or finishing of a task.“Of the group, Max (Room’s Jacob Tremblay) is the most nominally mature, at least biologically speaking; unlike his childhood companions, he’s entered the early throes of puberty, and spends a lot of his waking hours pining, rather chastely, for a classmate (Millie Davis).”
Synonym of froe (“a cleaving tool for splitting cask staves and shingles from a block of wood”).

verb

To cause (someone) to feel throes, as if in childbirth; to put in agony.“Pre-thee ſay on, / The ſetting of thine eye, and cheeke proclaime / A matter from thee; and a birth, indeed, / Which throwes thee much to yeeld.”
To feel throes; to struggle in extreme pain; to be in agony; to agonize.“[W]hile yet he gazed at the wonderful countenance, his memory began to throe and struggle.”