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Origin and history of tribulation

tribulation(n.)

"state or condition of great affliction, oppression, suffering, or distress," physical, emotional, or spiritual, c. 1200, tribulacioun, from Old French tribulacion (12c.), from Church Latin tribulationem (nominative tribulatio) "distress, trouble, affliction," noun of action from past-participle stem of tribulare "to oppress, afflict."

This was a specific figurative use by Christian writers of Latin tribulare "to press," also possibly "to thresh out grain," from tribulum "threshing sledge," a wooden frame studded beneath with sharp iron teeth or points. It is held to be a derivative of terere "to rub" (from PIE root *tere- (1) "to rub, turn") + -bulum, suffix forming names of tools.

Formerly part of a larger word-family, showing also influence of trouble; Middle English had tribul "a tribulation, a trouble," also as a surname; tribule (v.) "disturb," also "crush, pound," from Latin tribulare. Tribulate "afflict, oppress," from the Latin past-participle stem, is attested from 1630s. Middle English also had tribulous, of the sea, "turbulent, troubled," also "troublesome;" tribulance "distress."

also from c. 1200

Entries linking to tribulation

trouble(v.)

c. 1200, troublen, "produce mental agitation or emotional turmoil;" mid-14c., "inflict suffering on;" from Old French trubler, metathesis of turbler, torbler "to trouble, disturb; make cloudy, stir up, mix" (11c.), from Vulgar Latin *turbulare, from Late Latin turbidare "to trouble, make turbid," from Latin turbidus (see turbid). Also compare trouble (n.).

The lighter sense of "pester with requests, ask importunately," often in formulas of polite apology, is by 1510s. Related: Troubled; troubling; troublable "easily stirred up," late 14c., from Old French.

*tere-(1)

*terə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to rub, turn," with derivatives referring to twisting, also to boring, drilling, piercing; and to the rubbing of cereal grain to remove the husks, and thus to threshing.

It might form all or part of: atresia; attorn; attorney; attrition; contour; contrite; detour; detriment; diatribe; drill (v.) "bore a hole;" lithotripsy; return; septentrion; thrash; thread; thresh; throw; threshold; trauma; trepan; tribadism; tribology; tribulation; trite; triticale; triturate; trout; trypsin; tryptophan; turn.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit turah "wounded, hurt;" Greek teirein "to rub, rub away;" Latin terere "to rub, thresh, grind, wear away," tornus "turning lathe;" Old Church Slavonic tiro "to rub;" Lithuanian trinu, trinti "to rub," Old Irish tarathar "borer," Welsh taraw "to strike."

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