THRESHOLD  , the

door-sill, the piece of stone or wood which is placed at the bottom of a door, gate, or entrance to a house or other building . The word is used in psychology as the equivalent of Ger . Schwelle and of Lat. limen, i.e. the lowest limit of sensation, the point at which the intensity of sensation becomes just noticeable . Etymologically threshold (O . Eng. herscold, M . Eng. hreswold) has usually been divided " thresh," i.e. thrash, beat, and wold, wald, wood; the word meaning the pieces of wood beaten or trampled by the feet . The termination, as is shown by the Old English form, has probably no connexion with wald, but is merely a suffix, as in O . H . Ger. driscilfli, threshold . The first part is certainly " thrash," beat; some have supposed that in early times the entrance to a house was used as a threshing-floor .