Dictionary

thurse en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle English thurs, thurse, thursse, thyrce, thirs, from Old English þyrs (“giant, enchanter, demon, wizard”), from Proto-West Germanic *þuris, from Proto-Germanic *þurisaz (“giant, name of the Þ-rune”), from Proto-Indo-European *tur-, *twer- (“to rotate, twirl, swirl, move”). Cognate with German Turse (“giant”), Danish tosse (“a fool, buffoon”), Norwegian tuss, tusse, tust (“goblin, kobold, elf, a dull fellow”), Icelandic þurs (“giant”).

Meanings

1. (dialectal) A giant; a gigantic spectre; an apparition.
   • And yet he was also, though many generations separated them, distant cousin to the shining eoten-maid Geard, whom the god Frea Ing had seen from afar and wedded; and to Scatha, the fair daughter of the old thurse Theasa, who had claimed a husband from among the gods as weregild for her father's slaying: often, it was said, the ugliest eotens would sire the fairest maids. 2010, Stephan Grundy, Beowulf (Fiction), iUniverse, →ISBN, page 33:

Forms