Etymograph

English

trash

Trash comes from Middle English trasch, probably a dialectal form of *trass, perhaps from Old Norse tros ‘rubbish, fallen twigs’.

  1. Old Norsec. 800–1350tros1‘rubbish, fallen twigs’uncertain
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*trass1uncertain
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500trasch1‘refuse, rubbish’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1613trash1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English trash, which cites Pokorny
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1613, The Tragedie of Bonduca: “I fled too; But not so fast , —your…”.

Lineage

  1. Old Norsec. 800–1350trosWiktionary, English trash, which cites Pokorny‘rubbish, fallen twigs’uncertain
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*trassWiktionary, English trash, which cites Pokornyuncertain
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500traschWiktionary, English trash, which cites Pokorny‘refuse, rubbish’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1613trashWiktionary, English trash, which cites Pokorny. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1613, The Tragedie of Bonduca: “I fled too; But not so fast , —your…”

The story

From Middle English trasch, trassh, probably a dialectal form of *trass (compare Orkney truss, English dialectal trous), from Old Norse tros (‘rubbish, fallen leaves and twigs’), perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *þrakjaz (‘dirt’). Pokorny instead derives it from Proto-Indo-European *dóru (‘tree’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Every English word from Old Norse tros

Today it means

noun Useless physical things to be discarded; rubbish; refuse.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “trash”. 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 / Old Norse tros / trash

Shirt and support for this word