Meaning

noun a holder attached to the gunwale of a boat that holds the oar in place and acts as a fulcrum for rowing

originFrom Middle English thō̆le (“a peg”), from Old English þol, þoll (“oar-pin, rowlock; thole”), from Proto-West Germanic *þoll, from Proto-Germanic *þullaz, *þullō (“beam; thole”), from Proto-Indo-European *tūl-, *twel- (“bush; sphere”). The word is cognate with Danish told (“thole”), Dutch dol (“thole; oarlock”), Low German Doll (“thole; oarlock”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0