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striptease

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Etymology and origin of the English word striptease

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Compound, Back-formation
First attested
1931 More words from the 20th century
Ultimate origin
Old English bestrypan,tæsan
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English strip
English striptease
From the same root
English stripper ← strip

Pronunciation

  • US: /ˈstɹɪpˌtiz/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English strip + tease.[2][3][4][5] The OED and, more tentatively, Etymonline take it as a back-formation from stripteaser, which they record earlier,[6][7] and the OED analyses that noun as strip and teaser.[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged, in reverse, derives stripteaser from striptease.[2] Etymonline files it under the hyphenated spelling strip-tease and notes that strip and tease were used separately in this sense in the late 1920s.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A burlesque act in which a performer takes off her clothes piece by piece: Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the noun to 1931.[2] Etymonline's earliest example is from Variety, 9 October 1935: "As yet vaudeville has not attempted the out-and-out strip-tease known to burlesque."[7] The OED's first quotation is from Variety of 2 December 1936.[6] The agent noun stripteaser is dated 1928 by Merriam-Webster Unabridged and 1930 by the OED.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Dictionary.com labels the word an Americanism.[4] It belonged at first to the burlesque stage,[2][7] and the performer was usually, though not always, a woman.[6][3] Within a year of the OED's first quotation it had a figurative use, in the House of Commons in 1937, and a verb.[6] Stripper in the same sense is recorded by 1930.[7]

Timeline

  • 1931 – noun, a burlesque act of gradual undressing.[2] Etymonline has 1935 and the OED 1936.[7][6]
  • 1937 – figurative use, in the House of Commons.[6]
  • 1937 – verb, to perform a striptease.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A form of entertainment in which a performer slowly undresses before an audience, usually to music, as in a burlesque act.[2][3][6]
  2. Figuratively, any gradual and tantalizing disclosure.[6]

Verb

  1. To perform a striptease: She stripteased at a club downtown for two seasons.[2][6]

Word family

  • stripteaser
  • stripteasing

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
Cite this entry

“Striptease.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/striptease. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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