Etymology

ME þrast (þrest-) formally continues the stem of the OE v. þrǣstan, probably < a PGmc *þraistjan-, but the senses attested for OE þrǣstan do not correspond very closely to the ideas of pressing or pushing which dominate the instances of ME þrast-, þrest-; so B-T renders the OE v. as ‘to twist, writhe, roll about; torture, torment, harrass, plague, afflict; press, constrain’, with ‘press, constrain’ belonging only to the relatively late glosses in AldV 1 (AldV 13.1). Some authorities have suggested semantic influence from the unrelated ON v. represented by OIcel þrýsta ‘to thrust, press; compress, strain heavily; force, compel’, probably via the ME loan þristen (þrusten, þresten) (thus OED and implied by Bj.), but a native sense development (from ‘twist’ to ‘constrain, force, press (etc.)’) is also plausible and thus straightforward derivation from the OE v. (so MED (s.v. thrēsten v.), TGD, GDS).

PGmc Ancestor

*þraistjan- 

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

cp. þrýsta (v.) ‘to thrust, press; compress, strain heavily; force, compel’
(ONP cp. þrýsta (vb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far trýsta, Icel þrýsta, Norw trysta, ODan tryste, Dan tryste, OSw trysta, MSw thrysta, Sw tryste

OE Cognate

þrǣstan 'to writhe, twist, press, force'

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

CC3

Attestation

MED lists a handful of instances in relevant senses (its (a) and (b)), from c1330 Horn Child (Auch) and Ayenb. as well as WA and the Gaw MS.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 1443; Cl 952; WA 554

TPD print the occurrence at WA 554 as the second element of a compound ('Thonere-thrastis').

Bibliography

MED threst(e (n.) , OED threst, thrast (n.) , HTOED , Dance þrast, Bj. 224, de Vries þrýsta, Mag. þrýsta, Orel *þrūstjanan, AEW ðrǣstan