To toil or labor excessively; to work hard or struggle forward with effort.
Compound of Old French/Germanic 'for-' (forward, excessively) plus 'travail' (Old French 'travail,' from Latin 'tripalium' meaning 'instrument of torture,' hence suffering or hard work).
The root 'travail' originally meant literally being tortured on a three-spiked device—so 'fortravail' means to push yourself forward through torture-level suffering. Medieval monks used this word for their spiritual exertion, basically saying 'I suffered onward with purpose!'
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