stride

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English striden,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English strīdan (“to straddle, stand or walk with the legs apart”),^[6][7][5][8] recorded only once, beside bestrīdan, the source of bestride.^[6][7] It continues Proto-Germanic *strīdaną.^[2][1][9] The only cognate with a similar sense is Middle Low German strīden (“to set the legs wide apart, straddle, take long steps”);^[6][5][10] elsewhere the Germanic verb means to strive, quarrel or fight: Old Frisian strīda, Dutch strijden, Old High German strītan and German streiten, Old Saxon strīdian and Old Norse stríða.^{[6][10][2][9]} The OED thinks the verbs are probably the same word; the root is commonly taken to have meant "contention" or "strong effort", from which "to take long steps" could come, but the sense "to straddle" would remain unexplained.^[6][2] Kroonen suggests a compound root Proto-Indo-European *strei-dʰh₁- (“to stand upright”),^[9] while Etymonline notes that Boutkan gives the verb no Indo-European etymology.^[2] Ayto sees a possible link with strife and strive, and derives straddle from a variant of the same base.^[11] The noun is inherited from Old English stride (“a step, pace”),^[2][7][12] from the weak grade of the verb's root, corresponding to Middle Low German strede;^[6][12] the modern noun was partly formed again from the verb, as its rhyme with biside in the “Cursor Mundi” shows before 1300.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To stand or walk with the legs wide apart, to straddle: in the Epinal Glossary, before 800.^[6][5][13] The noun is recorded in Old English as a measure of distance, in the Corpus Glossary.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Only in English did the word come to mean "to take long steps",^[13][2] a sense found from about 1200, in the Trinity College Homilies, usually implying haste.^[6][2] The old sense "to straddle" was obsolete by 1638,^[6] and "to mount a horse" was used from about 1300 to 1540.^[6] From 1575 the verb also meant to step over something in one stride,^[6][2] and since 1600 the noun was used figuratively of progress, as in make strides.^[6][2] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as a long step, a step taken with great violence, and a wide stretching of the legs.^[14] The noun was applied to horses from 1614,^[6][2] and to their regular movement in a race from 1883, which gave get into one's stride and hit one's stride.^[6][2] Take in one's stride (1832) was first said of a horse clearing an obstacle without breaking its gallop, and is figurative from 1902.^[6][2] Strides for trousers is slang from 1889, now associated especially with Australia.^[2][13][11] In jazz, stride tempo is recorded from 1934 and stride piano by 1948.^[2] English dialects have many past-tense forms, among them strade, strid and strud.^[15]

Timeline

• before 800 – verb, to straddle (obsolete by 1638).^[6][5]
• Old English – noun, the length of a stride as a measure.^[6]
• c. 1200 – to walk with long steps; noun, a long step.^[6]
• before 1300 – to mount a horse (obsolete by 1540).^[6]
• 1575 – to step over something.^[6][2]
• 1600 – figurative, progress.^[6]
• 1614 – a complete movement of a horse's legs.^[6]
• 1832 – take in one's stride.^[6][2]
• 1883 – the regular movement of a horse in a race.^[6]
• 1889 – strides, trousers.^[2]
• 1934 – stride tempo in jazz.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To walk with long steps, often quickly or with energy: She strode across the car park.^[16][4][6]
2. To take a single long step, especially over an obstacle.^[16][4][6]
3. To pass over or along something with long steps.^[4][6]
4. To sit or stand with one leg on each side of; straddle or bestride.^[4][6]
5. (obsolete, before 800–1638) To stand with the legs wide apart.^[4][6]

Noun

1. A long step in walking or running.^[16][4][6]
2. The distance covered by such a step.^[16][4][6]
3. A striding gait.^[16][6]
4. One complete movement of an animal's legs, ending when they are back in their starting positions.^[16][6]
5. (usually plural) Progress: The team has made great strides this season.^[16][6]
6. A regular pace of activity, in phrases such as get into one's stride, hit one's stride and take in one's stride.^[16][6]
7. strides (slang, chiefly Australian) trousers.^[2][13][11]

Word family

• strider
• stridingly
• outstride
• overstride
• bestride
• astride
• stride piano

Related words

• straddle
• strife
• strive

References

1. ^ a b 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
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 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ 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)
16. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins