grapnel

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English grapenel, later grapnel,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman *grapenel, an assumed diminutive of Old French grapon (“grapnel”).^[4][5][6] Other dictionaries start from grapin (“hook”), itself a diminutive,^[7][8][3] or from an assumed Middle French *grapinel;^[9] compare French grappin.^[4] The base is grape (“hook”),^[3][10][11] from a Germanic word: Barnhart calls it Frankish, comparing Old High German krapfo (“hook”),^[3] and Etymonline gives Proto-Germanic *krappon (“hook”).^[10] Grape has the same origin.^[10][7] An earlier form, grapel, is recorded from 1295.^[3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Both a hooked iron thrown on a rope to seize something and a small anchor: 1373, in a London document printed in Riley's Memorials of London.^[4][2] The Middle English Dictionary is unsure of the anchor sense there.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Weekley calls the word originally nautical.^[12] The OED's first sense is an iron with claws thrown on a rope to hold an object, especially an enemy's ship,^[4] and Chaucer has it in The Legend of Good Women (about 1386), "In goth the grapenel, so ful of crokes".^[2][13] The small anchor with several flukes runs alongside it from the same record of 1373; the phrase to come to grapnel meant to come to anchor, and the anchor was used especially for boats and for securing a balloon as it came down.^[4] Johnson (1755) gave both senses, the anchor first.^[14] Pepys used the word once for a harpoon, in 1663.^[4] From 1875 it also named various tools for grasping and clutching, and a verb appeared in 1890.^[4]

Timeline

• 1373 – a clawed iron thrown on a rope; a small anchor with several flukes.^[4][2]
• 1663 – a harpoon, in Pepys's diary (a single record).^[4]
• 1875 – various implements for grasping.^[4]
• 1890 – verb, to catch with a grapnel.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A device with several hooks or claws on the end of a rope, thrown so as to catch and hold something; a grappling iron.^[15][9][4]
2. A light anchor with several flukes, used for small boats and for dragging.^[15][9][4]
3. Any of various implements for grasping or clutching.^[4]

Verb

1. To catch or seize with a grapnel.^[4]

Related words

• grape
• grapple
• cramp

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins