Sc. Obs. In 6 threit, pl. thretis. Origin and meaning obscure. Occurs app. only in Douglas’s Æneis, where it is expletive, answering to nothing in the Latin. Referred in Ruddiman’s Glossary, 1710, to THREAT sb., and explained as ‘a throng, crowd, haste, speed.’
Jamieson takes it in the first quot. as ‘throng, crowd’ (which does not suit the context); the second and third examples he renders ‘in haste, eagerly,’ the fourth ‘in pairs, in couples.’ In all the passages we have perhaps strained applications of THREAT sb. sense 2, ‘pressure, etc.’ introduced for the sake of rhyme.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, II. [x.] ix. 33. Scho … Him towart hir hes brocht, but ony threte. Ibid., V. ii. 117. Sum vthir … the colis hett Wndir the speitis swakkis, to roist in threit The raw spaldis ordanit for the muld meit. Ibid., XII. xii. 141. The rynnyng hund dois hym [the hart] assail in threte Baith with swyft raise and with his questis grete. Ibid., XII. ix. 78. That this Murranus the renis and the thetis Quharwyth hys stedis ȝokkit war in thretis Vndyr the quhelis hes do weltit doun.
