strangle

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English stranglen,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French estrangler (“to choke, throttle”),^{[6][3][4][7][5]} now étrangler,^[6][7] with loss of the first vowel,^[8][7][9] from Latin strangulō (“to choke, stifle, constrain”),^[6][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek στραγγαλάω (strangaláō, “to choke, twist”),^[3][4][6] from στραγγάλη (strangálē, “halter, cord”),^[6][3][4][5] related to στραγγός (strangós, “twisted”).^{[6][3][4][10]} Etymonline and Barnhart take these back to Proto-Indo-European *strengh- (“tight, narrow; to pull tight, twist”),^[3][4] and Ayto links them with string and strong, the common idea being stiffness or tautness.^[10] The Middle English Dictionary adds the Latin verb as a direct source of the English form.^[2] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1121–35.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To kill by stopping the breath, to choke or smother: before 1300, in Havelok.^[6][4] Barnhart finds stranglen, "to kill", probably about 1280,^[4] and Etymonline gives about 1300.^[3]

Semantic evolution

By 1303, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne, it meant specifically to kill by compressing the throat, also of a wild animal or evil spirit.^[6] It could be broader in Middle English, for killing or slaughter in general.^[3] From about 1374 to 1607 it also covered killing by poison or, rarely, the sword.^[6][8] Chaucer and Gower used it for killing, the latter by choking.^[12] Crowding out a plant was described in this way by about 1384,^[6] and the verb then moved to anything held back: the OED has a figurative use from 1591 and the sense "to suppress, prevent the growth of" from before 1616, in The Winter's Tale,^[6] while Etymonline dates the figurative sense to the 1610s.^[3] The Anglo-Norman verb already had a sense of suppressing.^[11] Johnson (1755) defined it first as to kill by intercepting the breath.^[13] The noun, "strangulation", was used from about 1386 to 1641, which is earlier than Etymonline's 1610s;^[6][3] a noun for a stranglehold, which Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes as a shortening of that word, appears in 1890.^[6][14] The slang strangle the gander, "to urinate", is New Zealand usage, recorded from 1947.^[15]

Timeline

• before 1300 – to kill by stopping the breath, to choke or smother.^[6][4]
• 1303 – to kill by compressing the throat.^[6]
• 1338 – intransitive, to be choked or suffocated.^[6]
• c. 1374 – to kill by poison or the like (until 1607).^[6]
• c. 1384 – to choke a plant by crowding it.^[6]
• c. 1386 – noun, the action of strangling (until 1641).^[6]
• c. 1450 – to constrict the neck or throat painfully.^[6]
• 1591 – figurative use.^[6]
• before 1616 – to suppress, or to hamper by restrictions.^[6]
• 1890 – noun, a stranglehold.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To kill by compressing the windpipe; to throttle: The victim had been strangled with a length of cord.^[16][14][6]
2. To hinder the growth or development of; to stifle or suppress by restriction: High taxes strangled the small ports.^[16][14][6]
3. To hold back a sound by swallowing suddenly: She strangled a yawn.^[16][8]
4. To stop or seriously obstruct the breathing of; to choke or smother.^[14][6]
5. To become choked or suffocated.^[6][8]
6. To kill by poison or the like (obsolete, c. 1374–1607).^[6][8]

Noun

1. A stranglehold.^[14][6]
2. The action of strangling; strangulation (obsolete, c. 1386–1641).^[6][8]

Word family

• strangler
• stranglingly
• unstrangled
• stranglehold

Related words

• strangulate
• strangulation
• strangles
• string
• strong

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins