Etymologically
Log in

strap

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:33. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

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

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)