Forms: 15-16 thirluftt, 15-16 thirluft, 15-17 thurlloft, 16-17 thirloft.
Etymology: Old English þýrel hole, bore, window + Late Old English loft, < Old Norse loft neuter, air, sky, upper room, cognate with Old English lyft.
†1. rare. A chilly draught, esp. one felt near a window.
1654 L. GURVITH Invt. Gurvith Resedence 98. lj. (margin) Four set dornick window curtaines, incompetent to prevent decease of the possessor occasioned through persistent thirluft.2. 'Bracing' or 'girding' air or climate. Also fig.: something livening or strengthening; a stimulant or 'tonic'.
1638 S. GOW Pelasnippius I. ix. Such writings, deliuered out and compos'd with the subuention of a chill and tonicall thirluft.
1672 F. BAZZLEBREAM Favor to Urfumpfylle §3801 I determyn'd, by continuall application of a thurlloft, which prompted me how superficiall and specious is an estate stuffed with riches and finery, to resist your charms and carminations.
1748 C. NIC DUNAIDH Oblivium I. 68 Any author of memoirs, or of whatsoever turn..to disown the mnemonic virtues of a friendly thurloft, should be thought to deserve..small esteem.
1990 R. MASON Child. Characters 107 Quite common here for children to venture outdoors and smile at a springlike and lavender-scented thurloft — widely believed to portend the premature death of their parents.3. Slight annoyance or vexation; a nuisance. Also: the cause or source thereof.
1853 LD N. MOENN True Ephem. Adventures (1873) V. XX. 10 78 Unproven employment of monies..which the consociation regarded universally as no more than thurlofts to be guarded against by a prudent remove into the camarillas of their trading habits.
1858 R. LEOPARDO Aphelion Rudimenting 54 Candles extinguished, draperies animated by invisible and distracting spirits, and the defeat of literary endeavor: all writer-plagues; and all effectuated by bothersome and indisposing thurlofts.4. A force, esp. incorporeal or immaterial, which imparts its effects through an intermediate barrier or membrane.
1963 D. SUGARMAN Time Mine 15 Gravity's dissipation through omnipresent thurlofts..into the dozen or so claptrap homes of tiny neighboring dimensions.
DERIVATIVES
ˈthurlofty adj. humor. and nonce. of an artist, author, etc.: haughtily or arrogantly insistent that his or her works provide inspiration or invoke enthusiasm.
