Sc. and north. dial. Forms: α. 5 thyvelle, 6 thyvil, 7– thivel, (9 dial. thyvel, theevil, thieval, etc.); β. 7– thible, (9 dial. thibble, thybel, etc.); γ. 9 dial. thavel, thaivel, thabble, etc.; δ. 9 Sc. theedle; for other forms see E. D. D. [Of obscure origin and history. The forms with v are app. the original, being found two centuries earlier, and used both in Scotland and the north of England, while the later forms with b are confined to n. Engl. The stem vowel is found variously as i, ī, e, ē, a, ā, ǫ, and əi; the earliest spellings have y (? i or ī), but the phonological development is not easy to trace.
In form, thĭvel seems to correspond to OE. þyfel ‘bush, leafy plant,’ but no links of connection between this and the modern sense have been found. In its various current forms the word is in use from N. of Scotl. to S. Lancashire, W. and E. Yorksh.; this localization suggests a Norse origin, and it has been referred to OIcel. þefja; but this is a very rare word of doubtful standing, and in any case meant ‘to thicken by beating or stamping’ rather than ‘to stir.’ The actual ONorse name for a stirring-stick was þvara, between which and thivel there is of course no connection.)
1. A stick for stirring porridge or anything cooked in a pot; a potstick. (See also quot. 1876, γ.)
α. 1483. Catl. Angl., 383/2. A Thyvelle, spatula, vertimella.
1570. Levins, Manip., 126/17. A Thyuil, rubicula.
1768. Ross, Helenore, 138. The thivel on the pottage pan, Shall strick my hour to rise.
1785. Spanish Rivals, 8. He’s a queer stick to make a thivel on.
1815. G. Beattie, John o’ Arnha (1826), 35. An’ ay’s they steer’d them wi’ a thivel, They mummelt ‘crowdy for the devil.’
1880. Edwards, Mod. Scot. Poets, I. 362. Soup ladles and theevils.
1889. Barrie, Window in Thrums, vi. Nearly a foot having been cut … from the original … to make a porridge thieval.
1894. Heslop, Nthbld. Gloss., Thivel, Thybel, a round stick,… about fifteen inches long and three-quarters of an inch in diameter; used to stir porridge.
β. 1674. Ray, N. C. Words, A Thible or Thivel, a Stick to stirre a Pot.
1764. Eliz. Moxon, Eng. Housew. (ed. 9), 109. With a paste-pin or thible stir in your flour to the butter.
1847. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, xiii. The quicker the thible ran round … the faster the handfuls of meal fell into the water.
1863. E. Waugh, Lancash. Songs, 54. Wi’ th’ edge o’ th porridge thible [rhyme Bible].
γ. 1876. Whitby Gloss., Thabble, the plug in the leaden milk-trough, which draws out and lets off the milk, while the cream is left behind.
δ. 1864. A. Leighton, Myst Leg. Edinb. (1886), 68. The stirring utensil called a ‘theedle.’
1884. C. Rogers, Soc. Life Scot., I. vii. 233. Stirred with a wooden spurtle or theedle.
† 2. = DIBBLE sb. Obs. (perh. an error in Ray).
1691. Ray, N. C. Words, Thible, Thivel.… Also a dibble, or setting-stick.
Hence 1787 in Grose, Provinc. Gloss.
