toil

English

/tɔɪl/

noun
Definitions
  • Labour, work, especially of a grueling nature.
  • Trouble, strife.
  • (usually) A net or snare; any thread, web, or string spread for taking prey.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English toilen, toylen derived from toiller (entangle, agitate, stir up) inherited from Middle English tolen, telien, tulien, tilyen, tolien, teolien (work, labour, till) inherited from Old English tiolian, tilian, telian, teolian (endeavor, gain, traffic, aspire to, cultivate, treat, tend, exert oneself, generate, procure, toil, till, obtain, cure, plough, trade, strive after, work, cherish, provide, try, aim at, make) inherited from Proto-Germanic *tilōną (strive, reach, aim for, hurry, reach for) inherited from Middle English toilen, toylen derived from Middle Dutch teulen, tuylen (work, labour, till).

Origin

Middle Dutch

teulen, tuylen

Gloss

work, labour, till

Concept
Semantic Field

Basic actions and technology

Ontological Category

Action/Process

Kanji

働

Emoji
✂️ 🏗️

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms