Etymologically
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strive

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈstɹaɪv/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English striven,[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French estriver (“to quarrel, dispute, contend”),[3][5][6][7] which the OED records as still surviving in some French dialects as étriver.[5] The French verb is related to estrif (“quarrel”), the source of strife,[3][2][4][8] and its further origin is disputed.[5] Some scholars derive estriver from estrif, taken as a change of the older estrit, from a Germanic word for strife related to stride;[5][7] Ayto compares Old High German strīt (“contention”).[7] Others take it from a Germanic strong verb, whose weak ablaut variant is seen in Middle Dutch straven, German streben (“to strive”) and Danish stræbe.[5][9] Wiktionary derives it from Frankish *strīban (“to exert, make an effort”), from Proto-Germanic *strībaną, or from *stribēn, and suggests that the English verb might instead continue an unrecorded Old English verb.[1] Collins, Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com call the French verb of Germanic origin.[10][9][11] The OED notes that the Provençal verb cited by earlier etymologists as its source does not exist.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To be at variance or in a state of hostility: before 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle.[5][6] Barnhart's first sense is "to quarrel, contend".[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb meant to quarrel and wrangle (1290), to contend with someone for something (1290), to fight in arms (1338) and to argue or dispute (1320s),[5] and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins notes that early examples could also mean "striving together".[12] The sense now usual, to try hard, is recorded before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi;[6][13] from 1399 the verb was also used of the spiritual fight against temptation.[5] The sense "quarrel" is now rare and poetic.[5][8] Unusually for a verb from French, strive is conjugated as a strong verb, past tense strove, on the pattern of drive and ride;[3][5] the strong forms appear a little earlier than the weak strived and have always been the commoner, though strived was used from the 14th to the 19th century.[5] The 1611 Bible always has strove in the past tense, and the past participle strove appeared in the 17th century and is now nonstandard.[5] Johnson (1755) gave the preterite as strove, "anciently strived".[14] English dialects had many past forms, such as strave, struv and strived, and in Hertfordshire and East Anglia to strive a bird's nest meant to rob it.[15]

Timeline

  • c. 1225 – to be at variance (Ancrene Riwle).[5]
  • c. 1290 – to quarrel; to contend for something.[5]
  • before 1325 – to try hard, endeavour (Cursor Mundi).[6]
  • 1320s – to dispute in words (obsolete by 1600).[5]
  • 1338 – to fight in arms (obsolete by 1706).[5]
  • 1399 – to fight against temptation.[5]
  • 1611 – past tense strove throughout the King James Bible.[5]
  • 1666 – to struggle against disease.[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To make great efforts to do or achieve something: They strove to finish the bridge before winter.
  2. To seek a goal with great effort, followed by for or after.
  3. To fight or struggle against or with someone or something: to strive against injustice.
  4. (rare, poetic) To quarrel.

Word family

  • striver
  • strivingly
  • strife
  • stride

Usage notes

The past tense is strove, less often strived, and the past participle striven or strived;[9][8] Merriam-Webster labels the past participle strove chiefly dialectal.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  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 m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  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)