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Travail
Definitions
- 1 Arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship. literary
"Great trauail is created to al men, and an heauie yoke vpon the children of Adam, from the day of their comming forth of their mothers wombe, vntil the day of their burying, into the mother of al. […]"
- 2 use of physical or mental energy; hard work wordnet
- 3 Specifically, the labor of childbirth.
"The lady shrieks and, well-a-near, Does fall in travail with her fear."
- 4 concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child wordnet
- 5 An act of working; labor (US), labour (British). countable, obsolete
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- 6 The eclipse of a celestial object. obsolete
- 7 Obsolete form of travel. alt-of, obsolete
- 8 Alternative form of travois (“a kind of sled”) alt-of, alternative
- 1 To toil.
"[A]ll slothful persons, which will not travail for their livings, do the will of the devil."
- 2 work hard wordnet
- 3 To go through the labor of childbirth.
"A woman when she traveyleth hath sorowe, be cause her houre is come: but as sone as she is delivered off her chylde she remembreth no moare her anguysshe, for ioye that a man is borne in to the worlde."
Etymology
PIE word *tréyes ] From Middle English travail, from Old French travail (“suffering, torment”), deverbal of travailler, from Vulgar Latin *tripāliāre, from Late Latin tripālium, from Latin tripālis (“held up by three stakes”) from Proto-Italic *trēs + *pākslos from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ-. Doublet of travel and travois.
From Middle English travailen, from Old French travaillier, from the noun (see above). Doublet of travel. Displaced native Middle English swinken (“to work”) (from Old English swincan (“to labour, to toil, to work at”)).
See also for "travail"
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