Etymologically
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stroll

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /stɹəʊ̯l/[1]
  • US: /stɹoʊ̯l/[1]

Etymology

It is of uncertain origin,[2][3][4] and began as a cant word of the early 17th century.[5][3][6] Most dictionaries take it as probably borrowed from German strollen (“to wander as a vagrant”), a dialect form,[7][8][9][10][11] variant of strolchen (“to stroll about, loaf”),[8][3][5] from Strolch (“vagabond, vagrant; also fortune-teller”).[7][8][3][12] The OED suggests it was one of the High German words brought in by soldiers about that time.[2] Etymonline names the verb as Swiss German,[3] and Klein relates it to Alemannic German strolen (“to stroll about”).[13] The further origin of Strolch is unknown according to the ODE and the Shorter Oxford,[12][10] but the American Heritage Dictionary and Barnhart take it as perhaps from Italian strolegh, a dialect form of astrologo (“astrologer, fortune-teller”), from Latin astrologus (“astronomer, astrologer”), of Greek origin.[7][8][3] Skeat derived it instead from troll with a prefix s-, from Old French es- and Latin ex.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To roam or wander from place to place without a settled home: 1603, in Thomas Dekker's The Wonderful Year.[2][8]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the word was used of vagrants and of strolling players: the noun stroll meant an itinerant player from 1623 or before 1627,[8][2][3] and stroller the same from 1608.[8] The sense "walk in a leisurely or careless way" is recorded from 1680, in Otway,[2][8] though Merriam-Webster dates it to 1668[11] and Etymonline to the 1670s.[3] The older sense of roaming without a home died out in the 18th century, though the adjective strolling kept it.[2][10] Johnson (1755) still defined the verb as "to wander; to ramble; to rove; to be a vagrant".[15] The noun "a leisurely walk" is dated 1753 by Etymonline[3] and 1814, in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, by the OED and Barnhart.[2][8] In the 20th century the noun came to mean an easy success (1908), and the verb to win or proceed easily, at first in baseball (1909);[2][10] British stroll on! expresses disbelief (1959).[2] In African American slang the stroll was the main street of a neighbourhood, after a street in New York known by that name.[16]

Timeline

  • 1603 – to roam without a settled home (obsolete after 1765).[2][8]
  • 1608 – stroller, an itinerant player.[8]
  • 1623 – noun, an itinerant player.[8]
  • 1680 – to walk in a leisurely way.[2][8]
  • 1693 – transitive, to walk along or about a place.[2]
  • 1755 – Johnson: "to wander; to ramble; to rove; to be a vagrant".[15]
  • 1814 – noun, a leisurely walk.[2][8]
  • 1908 – noun, something easily achieved.[2]
  • 1909 – verb, in baseball, to get a base on balls; to proceed easily.[2]
  • 1959 – stroll on!, an expression of disbelief.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To walk in a leisurely way; to saunter: We strolled along the riverbank after dinner.[9][11][2]
  2. To walk along or around a place in this way: tourists strolling the old town.[11][2]
  3. To wander from place to place, especially to find work: strolling players.[9][11]
  4. (informal) To win or succeed with little effort.[2][10]
  5. (obsolete, 1603–1765) To roam without a settled home, as a vagrant.[2][10]

Noun

  1. A leisurely walk: a stroll through the park.[9][11][2]
  2. (informal) Something achieved with no great effort; a walkover.[2][10]

Word family

  • stroller

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 v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  12. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com