strap

Etymology

It began as a dialect form of strop; the early examples are Scots or nautical, and in Scots the vowel a for o is regular, as in the Scots forms of top and drop.^[2][3][4] The older word is inherited from Middle English strope (“loop or strap on a harness”), recorded from the mid-14th century^[5][6] and probably borrowed from Old French estrop (“strap”),^[6][5] from Latin stroppus (“strap, band”) (also struppus),^[6][7][8] which goes back, perhaps through Etruscan, to Ancient Greek στρόφος (stróphos, “twisted band, cord”), from στρέφω (stréphō, “to turn”), the verb behind strophe.^[6][5][7] Old English had a form stropp (“thong for an oar”), also from the Latin word,^[2][5][9] and Merriam-Webster and the OED trace the English word to it, as a West Germanic borrowing shared with Middle Dutch strop and Middle Low German strop;^[10][2] Barnhart thinks the Old English word, recorded once about 1050, is probably not continuous with the Middle English one.^[6] Johnson (1755) derived it from Dutch and Italian.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A snare for birds, also used figuratively: 1584, in Robert Greene's Gwydonius, a sense obsolete by the early 17th century.^[2][12][3] The Oxford Dictionary of English also dates to the late 16th century a sense "piece of timber fastening two objects together".^[13][12] Merriam-Webster's first date for a band of metal is 1602,^[10] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1565–75^[14] and Etymonline to the 1610s.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word took over the senses of strop and then gave most of them up again to it: by the 18th century strap was the usual word for a flat band of leather, while strop kept the nautical and razor senses.^[4][2] Shakespeare's Sir Toby already speaks of boots hanging themselves "in their own straps", the loops for pulling a boot on (Twelfth Night).^[2][11] A band of iron or other metal for fastening is recorded from 1620,^[12][6] the leather band or thong from 1685, and a strip with a buckle from 1688.^[2] From about 1710 the strap was also the instrument of punishment, and the strap meant a beating with it;^[2] the verb "to beat with a strap" followed in 1735.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as a narrow long slip of cloth or leather.^[11] In mechanics a strap was a driving belt from 1790,^[2] and in 1842 the loop that a passenger holds in a moving vehicle,^[2] which gave strap-hanger.^[15] A slang sense "credit", as in on strap, is found from the 1830s;^[16][5] from it Etymonline derives strapped, short of money (1857).^[5] In slang to strap also meant to work hard (1811),^[16][2] and in Leeds and other dialects to give goods on credit.^[2][16]

Timeline

• mid-14th century – strope, a loop or strap on a harness.^[5][6]
• 1584 – a snare for birds (obsolete).^[2]
• a1616 – a loop for pulling on a boot, in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.^[2]
• 1620 – a narrow band of metal for fastening.^[6][12]
• a1625 – (nautical) a strop.^[2]
• 1685 – a band or thong of leather.^[2]
• 1688 – a strip of leather or cloth with a buckle.^[2]
• 1711 – verb, to fasten with a strap.^[2][10][5]
• 1735 – verb, to beat with a strap.^[2][5]
• 1790 – (mechanics) a driving belt.^[2]
• 1811 – (slang) verb, to work hard.^[16]
• 1842 – a loop to hold on to in a moving vehicle.^[2]
• 1857 – strapped, short of money.^[5]
• 1913 – strap in, to fasten one's safety belt in an aircraft.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A narrow strip of leather, cloth or other flexible material, often with a buckle, used to fasten, hold together or carry something: She slung the camera over her shoulder by its strap.
2. A band or plate of metal used to fasten or reinforce parts.
3. A loop hanging from the roof of a bus or train for standing passengers to hold.
4. the strap: punishment by beating with a leather strap.
5. A razor strop.
6. (nautical) A strop used on a ship's rigging.

Verb

1. To fasten, bind or secure with a strap, often with in, on or up: Strap the child into the car seat.
2. To bind a sprained joint or a wound with adhesive bandages or plaster, usually strap up.
3. To beat with a strap.
4. To sharpen a razor on a strap (now rare).

Word family

• strappy
• strappable
• straplike
• blackstrap
• restrap
• straphanger
• strapper
• understrap

Related words

• strop
• strophe
• catastrophe

Usage notes

In Scots and in northern and midland English dialect strap-oil was a jocular name for a beating with a strap, and a child might be sent to fetch some as a prank.^[17] In Irish English strap was a term of abuse for a bold girl or woman,^[17][16] which Green's Dictionary of Slang derives from Irish straip, a whore.^[16] In Leicestershire and Northamptonshire to strap a cow was to draw off the last of its milk.^[17]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)