arch. and Hist. Forms: α. 1 ðrop (þrep), 1–5 þrop, (4–5 throop-e, þroup), 4, 9 dial. throp (5 thrope). β. 1–2, 4–5 þorp, 5– thorpe, 5, 7– thorp. [OE. and ME. þrop and þorp hamlet, village, farm, or estate; Com. Teut. = OFris. thorp, therp village, mod.Fris. terp village, village-mound (see TERP); OS. thorp (MLG., LG., MDu., Du. dorp, LG. and EFris. dörp); OHG. (MHG., Ger.) dorf village (locally ‘gathering of people, meeting’); ON. þorp village, hamlet, farmstead (Norw. torp, Sw. torp cottage, little farm, Da. torp farmstead, hamlet, borough), Goth. þaurp estate, land, field:—OTeut. *þorpom. Ulterior etymology doubtful; original sense and its development in the Teutonic languages not clear.
ON. has (app. thence derived) þyrpast to crowd, throng, þyrping crowd; and þorp is by many referred to same root as L. turba, Gr. τύρβη crowd, tumult. Others compare L. tribus tribe, and Celt. *treb subdivision of a people, W. tref town. For other suggested cognates, cf. Kluge, Franck, Doornkaat-Koolman.]
A hamlet, village, or small town; in ME. esp. an agricultural village: see quots.
Not a frequent word in OE., being chiefly found in Glosses and Vocabularies, in form þrop, which was also the prevailing form in ME. down to 1400. Þorp appears once in late OE. and in the north in 14th c., and may really be due to Norse influence. In various forms as Thorpe, Throop, Thrupp, the word occurs as a place-name, and it is a frequent second element in these in the forms -thorpe, -thrup, -trup, chiefly in the Danelaw district. It appears to have been a ‘common noun’ to Langland and Chaucer; but in Caxton to be a literalism of translation. As a separate word it has been used occasionally from 1600, but is app. only literary or archaic, rarely dialectal: see Eng. Dial. Dict.
α. c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (O.E.T.), 557. Conpetum [= cross-ways, Carfax], tuun, þrop.
a. 800. Erfurt Gloss., 307 Conpetum, tuun, vel ðrop.
a. 1000. Ælfric, Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 147/5. Fundus [= farm, piece of land], þrop.
a. 1000. Ags. Gloss., ibid., 207/14. Competum … i. uilla, uel þingstow, uel þrop.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 89. Bethfage, Swo hatte þe þrop þe preste one wunien, bi sides ierusalem.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 2141. To seche eche cite & alle smale þropes.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. II. 47. For lewede, for lerede, for laborers of þropes [v.rr. þrepis, þorpes]. Ibid. (1393), C. I. 219. As barouns & burgeis and bondemen of þroupes [v.rr. þropus, þropes, thorpys].
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wife’s T., 15. Citees, burghes, castels, hye toures, Thropes, bernes, shipnes, dayeryes, This maketh that ther been no ffairyes. Ibid., Clerk’s T., 143. Noght fer … There stood a throope [2 MSS., throop 1, thrope 3. thorpt 1] of site delitable, in which that poure folk of that village, Hadden hir beestes and hir herbergage.
c. 1440. [see β].
β. a. 1122. O. E. Chron., an. 963 (Laud MS.). Sce. Petres mynstre Medeshamstede … and ealle þa þorpes þe ðærto lin.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1178. He wast wyth werre þe wones of þorpes.
c. 1381. Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 350 (MS. Gg. 4. 27). The kok that orloge is of thorpis lyte.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 492/1. Tho(r)pe, thrope, lytylle towne.
1481. Caxton, Reynard, viii. (Arb.), 15. The worde anone sprange oueral in the thorpe [Orig. Flem. die mare die spranck over al den dorp]. Ibid. (1485), St. Wenefryde, 18. He reteynynge his felawe with hym abode that nyght in a thorpe.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, XII. xxxii. 219. Within a little thorpe I staid at last.
1613. W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. iii. About whose Thorps that night curs’d Limos went.
1814. Wordsw., Excursion, VIII. 101. Welcome, wheresoe’er he came—Among the tenantry of thorpe and vill.
1855. Tennyson, Brook, 29. I hurry down … By twenty thorps, a little town, And half a hundred bridges. Ibid. (1864), En. Ard. (end). The little thorp had seldom seen A costlier funeral.
Hence † Thorpsman, a villager. Obs. rare.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., To Rdr. The inbred stock of more homely women and less filching Thorps-men.
1876. Whitby Gloss., Thorpsmen, villagers. Old local print.
