strip

Pronunciation

• IPA: /strɪp/^[1]

strip¹ remove, undress

Etymology

To remove the clothes is inherited from Middle English strepen, strupen, from Old English -strīepan, -strȳpan “to plunder, rob”, as in inherited from Old English bestrȳpan (“to plunder”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *straupijaną,^[2][3][4] which also gave Middle Dutch stropen “to plunder, strip” and German streifen “to strip off”.^[3][2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To remove someone's clothes: about 1200 in Barnhart, the early 13th century in Etymonline.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

To remove the bark of a tree is from about 1225,^[3] and to undress oneself from the late 14th century.^[2] To deprive someone of rank or possessions developed early.^[6][7] To tear the thread of a screw is from 1839, and the teeth of a gear from 1873.^[2] To perform a striptease is from 1929, American;^[2][3] strip poker is attested by 1904, strip teaser from 1930 and striptease from 1936,^[2][3] and strip search by 1947.^[2] Stripper first meant one who strips off bark (1581), a machine for stripping (1835), and a striptease performer from 1930.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – to undress someone.^[3]
• c. 1225 – to remove bark.^[3]
• late 14th century – to undress oneself.^[2]
• 1839 – to strip a screw.^[2]
• 1904 – strip poker.^[2]
• 1929 – to do a striptease.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To take off clothes or a covering; to undress.
2. To take everything out of something, such as a room or an engine.
3. To take away someone's rank, title or property.
4. To perform a striptease.
5. To damage the thread of a screw or the teeth of a gear.

Noun

1. An act of undressing, or a striptease.

strip² narrow piece

Etymology

The narrow piece is probably borrowed from Middle Low German strippe (“strap, thong”) or another Low German source,^[2][3][4] related to stripe,^[3][4][2] of which MWU takes it to be an alteration.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A narrow piece of cloth or paper: 1459 in the OED and Barnhart.^[8][3]

Semantic evolution

A long narrow tract of land or piece of wood is from the 1630s, 1638 in Barnhart in American English.^[2][3] A comic strip, a sequence of small drawings telling a story, is from 1920.^[8][2] The airstrip is from 1936,^[8][2] a street of clubs and bars from 1939, first Los Angeles' Sunset Strip,^[2][8] and a racetrack from 1941.^[8] To tear a strip off someone, to scold them, is from 1940.^[8] The strip mine (1892) was named from removing soil in parallel strips.^[2] The distinctive clothing of a sports team is a 20th-century British sense.^[7][9] The verb, to cut into strips, is from 1885.^[3]

Timeline

• 1459 – a narrow piece of cloth.^[8][3]
• 1638 – a strip of land.^[3]
• 1892 – a strip mine.^[2]
• 1920 – a comic strip.^[8]
• 1936 – an airstrip.^[8]
• 1939 – a street of clubs and bars.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A long, narrow piece of something: a strip of paper.
2. A long, narrow area of land.
3. A comic strip.
4. A street lined with shops, bars and clubs.
5. (British) The clothes worn by a sports team.

Related words

• stripe
• stripper
• striptease
• outstrip

Usage notes

Strip in law, an old term for estrepement (waste done to land), is a different word, from Anglo-Norman estrepe.^[7][8] The obsolete strip “to move swiftly, outstrip” is also separate,^[7] and in Somerset and Devon dialect a strip is a blow with a switch.^[10]

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 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ 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)