Etymologically
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loop

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /luːp/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English loupe, of uncertain or unknown origin.[2][3][4] The OED and Barnhart favour a Celtic source (compare Scottish Gaelic lùb (“loop, bend”) and Irish lúb),[4][5][6][3] perhaps blended with a borrowing of Old Norse hlaup (“a leap, run”) (see leap);[5][4] MWU compares Middle Dutch lupen (“to lie in wait, peer”).[2] Hoad notes that the sense of an opening in a wall, as in loophole, matches Anglo-Latin loupa, of unknown origin, and that it is not certain the words are the same.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fold or doubling of a string, rope or cloth: probably about 1390 in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,[5] the late 14th century in Etymonline, about 1400 in the OED.[4][8]

Semantic evolution

A ring or curved piece of metal used as a fastening is from 1674–91,[8] and anything loop-shaped, a line on paper or a bend of a river, from 1668.[8] In anatomy the loop of Henle in the kidney is named from 1846,[8] and in a fingerprint a loop is from 1880.[4] A railway or telegraph line that leaves the main line and rejoins it is a later use.[9][10] A loop of magnetic tape or film is first recorded in 1931,[4] and in computer programming a sequence of instructions executed repeatedly from 1947.[4] The verb meant to draw a leash through a ring about 1400,[4][5] and to form loops from 1832;[4][2] to loop the loop (1900) was first said of roller coasters.[4] Looped, drunk, is slang from 1934.[4] In the loop, informed, and out of the loop are later colloquial uses.[9][10]

Timeline

  • c. 1390 – a doubled length of rope or cloth.[5]
  • c. 1400 – the verb, to draw through a ring.[4]
  • 1668 – a loop-shaped thing.[8]
  • 1880 – a loop in a fingerprint.[4]
  • 1900 – loop the loop.[4]
  • 1931 – a loop of tape.[4]
  • 1947 – a loop in programming.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A length of string, wire or the like that curves round and crosses itself, leaving an opening.
  2. Something with a circular or curved shape or path.
  3. A circular manoeuvre in which an aircraft flies upside down at the top.
  4. (computing) A set of instructions repeated until a condition is met.
  5. A closed electric circuit.

Verb

  1. To form into a loop, or to fasten or encircle with a loop.
  2. To move in a loop; to fly an aircraft in a loop.

Word family

  • looper
  • loopy
  • unloop
  • loophole
  • loop-the-loop
  • interloop
  • Varley loop
  • closed loop
  • leap
  • loupe

Usage notes

In South African English loop is Afrikaans, “walk!”, from Dutch lopen.[6] In founding a loop was a soft mass of wrought iron, now rare (see loupe).[6]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins