Etymograph

English

threatening

Threatening comes from Middle English thretenyng.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500thretenyng1
  2. Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1592threatening1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English threatening
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew: “Fie, fie, vnknit that thretaning vnkinde brovv, / And…”.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500thretenyngWiktionary, English threatening
  2. Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1592threateningWiktionary, English threatening. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew: “Fie, fie, vnknit that thretaning vnkinde brovv, / And…”

Formed from threaten + -ing

Proto-Indo-European *trewd- ‘to push, to thrust’

Old English þrēatnian ‘to urge, force, compel’

Middle English thretenen

English threaten

Every English word from Middle English thretenyng

Another origin of threatening

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500thretenyng
  2. Englishtodaythreatening

Today it means

verb Presenting a threat, posing a likely risk of harm.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “threatening”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Middle English thretenyng / threatening

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