stripe

stripe¹ band of colour

Etymology

The band of colour is probably borrowed from Middle Dutch strīpe or Middle Low German strīpe (“stripe, streak”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} although it may instead be a back-formation from striped, itself perhaps of Low German or Dutch origin.^{[6][8][9][10]} Barnhart takes the verb, recorded first, as probably borrowed from Middle Flemish stripen (“to form a narrow band”),^[11] and Skeat thought it probably a weavers' term.^[12] The Dutch word is now streep.^[11][5][12] Its cognates include Danish stribe, Middle High German strīfe and German Streifen,^{[2][11][5][8]} from Proto-Germanic *strīpô,^[1][13] and Klein, Merriam-Webster and Etymonline compare Old Irish sriab (“stripe”).^[5][14][2] Etymonline reports a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *strig- (“to stroke, rub, press”), the root of strigil.^[2] The word is related to strip, a narrow piece,^[8][6] and according to Skeat and Merriam-Webster to streak.^[12][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To ornament cloth with bands: 1415, in a will in Archbishop Chichele's register, which leaves curtains "striped with plonket riban".^[3][11] The OED's first record of the verb is from 1471, in the Paston letters, of striping a doublet with velvet.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The noun is recorded in the MED from 1459, of bands of fabric in an inventory of Sir John Fastolf's goods,^[3] but in the OED only from 1626, in Bacon, although the OED thinks it probably much older.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "a lineary variation of colour", remarking that this seemed to be the original notion of the word.^[15] The word was applied to the markings of animals and plants (striped in natural history from 1598) and to a striped fabric (1751).^[6] The sense of a chevron or band of braid on a uniform sleeve, showing rank, dates from 1827,^[6][2][10] and stripes for a prison uniform from 1887, in American slang.^[6][2] The figurative sense "kind, sort", especially in of a different stripe, is American, from the idea of a distinctive colour;^[2] Etymonline finds it by 1847 in a play by J. K. Paulding, and notes that the phrase was used earlier in describing fabrics.^[2] Collins labels this sense chiefly US and Canadian.^[16] In the 20th century the noun was also used of a magnetic strip on cine film (1954) and a line on a sports pitch (1967).^[6] In Scotland and parts of England a stripe was a strip or narrow piece of ground,^[17] and in Anglo-Irish use the verb meant to divide land into strips (1882).^[6][8]

Timeline

• 1415 – verb, to ornament with bands of ribbon.^[3][11]
• 1459 – noun, a band or narrow piece of fabric.^[3]
• 1598 – striped in natural history.^[6]
• 1626 – noun, a long narrow band of a different colour, in Bacon.^[6]
• 1751 – a striped fabric.^[6]
• 1827 – a chevron or braid on a uniform.^[6][2]
• 1847 – kind, sort (American).^[2]
• 1887 – stripes, a prison uniform (U.S. slang).^[6][2]
• 1954 – a magnetic stripe on film.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long narrow band of colour or texture that differs from the surface around it: a blue shirt with thin white stripes.^[16][14][6]
2. A fabric with such bands.^[16][6]
3. A strip of braid or a chevron on a uniform, especially one that shows rank.^[16][6][2]
4. (chiefly U.S. and Canada) A kind or sort: politicians of every stripe.^[16][2]
5. A strip of magnetic material, as on a card or film.^[6][8]

Verb

1. To mark or decorate with stripes.^[14][8][6]

Word family

• stripeless
• pinstripe
• striped
• stripy
• magnetic stripe
• candy stripe
• striper

stripe² stroke of a whip

Etymology

The stroke of a whip is of disputed origin.^[8][10][7] Etymonline and Barnhart take it as probably a special use of stripe¹, from the long narrow mark that a lash leaves on the skin;^[2][11] Weekley likewise has it first as the mark of a blow, then the blow itself.^[18] The OED instead thinks it probably comes from Low German or Dutch, comparing Dutch strippen (“to whip”), strips (“a flogging”) and West Frisian strips, which are not found as early as the English word, and Middle Low German strippe (“strap, whiplash”),^[6][2] the source Merriam-Webster proposes.^[14] Hoad calls it of unknown origin.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A weal or scar, the mark of a wound or lash: about 1420, in Lydgate's Troy Book, of a scar running along a woman's face.^[3][11] The Promptorium Parvulorum (1440) equates it with Latin vībex (“weal”).^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

From the mark the word passed to the blow that makes it:^[18][2] a stroke with a staff, sword, missile or claw from about 1475 to 1596,^[6] and a stroke with a whip or scourge from about 1485, in the Digby play of Mary Magdalene, now archaic and mostly in the plural.^[6][8][14] Johnson (1755) gave both "a weal" and "a blow; a lash" under the same noun as the band of colour.^[15] In the 16th century the word could also mean a stroke of divine judgement (1564–1623) and a touch on the keys of an instrument (1590–1616).^[6] The verb, to beat or whip, is recorded from about 1460 to 1533 and was revived by Carlyle in 1843; it is now rare.^[6][8]

Timeline

• c. 1420 – a scar or weal, in Lydgate's Troy Book.^[3][11]
• 1440 – a weal, in the Promptorium Parvulorum.^[3][6]
• c. 1460 – verb, to beat or whip (until 1533).^[6]
• c. 1475 – a blow with a weapon (obsolete by 1596).^[6]
• c. 1485 – a stroke with a whip or scourge.^[6]
• 1843 – verb, to punish with stripes, in Carlyle.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) A stroke with a whip, lash or rod, usually in the plural: sentenced to twenty stripes.^[14][8][6]
2. (obsolete, 1440–1730) The mark left by a lash; a weal.^[6][15]

Verb

1. (rare) To beat or whip.^[14][8][6]