The term thrash is a word that dates back to the seventh century.  It first showed up in the year 800. The word comes from Old English.  The Oxford English Dictionary gives the definition “Da wereoan neat, pe man..drifeo and pirscoe” from Cynewwulf Elene. There is no translation of the sentence in the Oxford English dictionary.  The spelling of the word has dramatically changed over the past thousand years and so had the meaning.  Thrash still keeps its original meaning, but it has also taken on new meanings.  I will try and convince you, the reader, that the new meanings of the term should be admitted into the Standard English language.  I will show you examples of how the word is used, give the standard definition and other slang meanings to try and convince you that the new meanings should be admitted into our dictionary.

         Thrash – to make move violently; beat, to defeat overwhelmingly; to toss about violently; flinging arms and legs.  This is the Standard English definition from Webster’s Dictionary.  The term can be used as a noun if I would say, ”My grandmother came into my room and asked me what the hell that noise was; I told her that it was called thrash.”  One can also use the term as a verb by saying, “He thrashed someone yesterday in the football game.”  It can also be used as an adjective when saying, “After a night of drinking with his friends, he was totally thrashed.”  The word is very versatile.  This word has been around since the early seventh century.  It has basically had the same meaning for the past thousand years or so; the same meaning still used today.

        Over the past 20 or 30 years the word has taken on new meanings.  Since the late 1970’s early 1980’s, when a new kind of music was starting to form, there has developed a type of music called thrash.  Thrash is a type of heavy metal.  It is a fast chaotic music with heavy speed riffs and loud screaming voices.  Thrash has not died out, but it is silent for now.  Only a handful of bands are still putting out the music.  It is not the same music that it once was, but it is still metal.  Now a lot of the bands that once made this so called devil music are now writing songs that fit in with today's alternative style.  It is somewhat softer and a lot slower.  Many of the bands have evolved with time but are still heavier than anything that you would find on B94 (a radio station in Pittsburgh, PA that plays softer music).  If you would like to sample exactly what thrash is, listen to some of the earlier word by Metallica, anything by Megadeth, Anthrax, or Flotsam and Jetsam.  These are just a few of the better bands, but there are many other musicians out there to listen to.  I think the word thrash best defines the music because when listening to this music, people get more energetic and start moving around, sometimes violently.  And since the definition is to make move violently, to toss about violently, flinging arms and legs, what word could better describe it.  Headbanging is a good example of this.  Fans and the musicians themselves often do this.  Headbanging: it is when people listening to thrash, or some other form of metal, start to bounce their heads up and down fast and violently with the music.  They usually keep a steady beat with the music.  People that listen to thrash or any type of metal for that matter are labeled Headbangers because of this action.  Another thing that people do when listening to thrash is that they start mosh pits.  Mosh pits happen in the crowd during a concert.  The music puts out a violent energy that gets the fans moving around.  It usually forms into a circle.  People run around in the circle and run into each other.  There is punching and kicking involved in these pits hence the definition, flinging arms and legs.  These pits can become very dangerous and there have been people killed in them.  There are a lot of arena’s that have banned mosh pits for that very reason.   Another way to use thrash when talking about music is to say, “He was up on stage thrashing.”  This would mean to play very fast and heavy.  Thrash does not always deal with speed but something that it always has to be is heavy.  By heavy I mean, heavily distorted guitars cranked up loud with large amounts of palm muting.  Palm muting is when a guitarist puts the palm of their picking hand on the strings just above the bridge.  There is also a major use of the bass drum and bass guitar when trying to get a maximum amount of heaviness.  These are the factors that cause the heavy sound when listening to metal.  This is a must when trying to play thrash.
 Thrash can also mean to beat or mess something up.  This definition of the word is in the Standard English dictionary.  Someone might say, “That guys face was thrashed by that man’s fist.”  People use this term when they really want to stress damage to something.  When someone hears the word thrash in sentence, they can start to picture in their minds just how badly damaged something was.  It would not sound the same if someone said, “That guys face was hurt by the other man’s fist.”  You can not get the same picture in your mind.  Some people have often used the word thrash when describing being intoxicated.  It falls in there with words like trashed, wasted, smashed, ripped, blasted, and plastered.  They are just a small example of words that can be used when talking with your friends about the wild weekend that you had.  This term probably came about because, someone one night got really drunk and hurt themselves or got hurt by someone and woke up the next day and said they looked like the were beat up.

         A word that often shows up if you look up the word thrash is threshed.  This word means to separate by any mechanical means, e.g. rubbing shaking, trampling, stamping, beating, or intermitting pressure, the grains of any cereal from the husks and straw; esp. by beating with flail; now also by the action of revolving mechanism in a mill or machine.  Also, to shake out or separate in the same way the seed of any plant (Oxford English Dictionary).  In early times, the word was for the trampling and stamping of oxen, or the dragging of heavy things over the corn laid on a smooth surface.  This word was first written around 850.  The words “ Deh ou percce swa berecorn oerccedum” were from Kentish Gloss.  Again, there is no translation in the Oxford English Dictionary.  Around the 1450’s the word’s spelling started to look like the spelling we have today.  It is found in Secrees, “Afftir hervest.. men tresshe shevys.”  The word thresh is always associated with the term thrash because both words mean to beat in some way.

            Something that I find very interesting is that the word thrash is not found in any of the slang dictionaries that I have looked through.  Even though it is used by many to describe different things, it is not listed as a slang term.  I feel, at least it should be listed as slang. The word is used when talking about music, fighting, drinking or some other from of being intoxicated.  Some also use the word when talking about skateboarding but I can not find the use for it since I am not into that sport. Even when I looked up words associated with skateboarding, the word thrash was not listed.  I have looked in a variety of slang dictionaries on the Internet, and none of them have the word listed as slang.  If the word thrash is used as much as it is with new and different meaning, then it should at least be admitted into a slang dictionary, but it is not.  If you were to look in a music magazine or guitar magazine such as Guitar World or Guitar, you would be able to see the word used very much.  I am sure the same would go for a skateboarding magazine.  If writers are using the term in their articles as much as they are, then it should be put into a slang dictionary.  I found a headline on the Internet (infoplease.com) for the Vans Warped Tour, it states, “The third annual festival combined skateboarding, climbing and other extreme sports activities with 30 acts from thrash, ska, punk and grunge circles…."  If a big event like the Vans Warped Tour will recognize the word then it has to be more than a slang term and should al to least be admitted into slang dictionary if not the Standard English Dictionary.

        I also feel that the new meanings for the word thrash should be put into the Standard English Dictionary.   The word is constantly being used when describing music.  It is just a new meaning for the word.  All words started out as slang before they were put into a dictionary.  Eventually someone figured that it was used so often that it was not slang anymore.  The same goes for words today.  Everyday, new meanings for words are being made. Yes, some are really stupid or silly, but some go on to define things that are often used by society such as music.  When rock and roll first came about the same was probably said for it.  But eventually someone figured that it should be put into a dictionary.  Although thrash has not had the same effect that rock and roll has had, it is still a popular kind of music among some groups of people.  It is just a new invention and a word has to be used to define it.  It can not just go unnamed, so why not put it in the dictionary for everyone to see it.  Someday in the future when a kid wants to know what kind of music he grandfather listened to, he should be able to look in a dictionary, slang or standard, and find out what exactly it was.

        All words started out as slang, some died out and some went on to become words that we use everyday.  This is why I feel that the word thrash should be admitted into the Standard English Dictionary.  It is just a word that defines a music that was once popular and is still creeping around.  The music will never die out and will always need a word to define it.  I hope that by reading this essay, you will understand and agree that the new meanings of thrash should be admitted into our Standard English Dictionary.

Jesse Posset