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Etymology and origin of the English word strop

Pronunciation

  • UK: /stɹɒp/[1]
  • US: /stɹɑp/[1]

strop1 leather strip, band

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
Old English glossary
From
Latin struppus via Middle English, Old English
Ultimate origin
Latin struppus
Etymology tree of strop1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin struppus
English strop

Etymology

The word for the band or strap is inherited from Middle English strope,[2][3] inherited from Old English strop (“thong for an oar”), found once in Old English, in a glossary where it translates Latin struppus.[4][5][6][7] It matches Dutch strop, Middle Low German strop and Old High German strupf,[4][7][8] and is probably a West Germanic borrowing from Latin struppus (“strap, band”), also stroppus,[4][7][9][8] perhaps from Ancient Greek στρόφος (stróphos, “twisted band, cord”),[4][9][7] from στρέφω (stréphō, “to turn”),[9][2] which the American Heritage Dictionary refers to Proto-Indo-European *streb(h)-.[2] The same Latin word gave Old French estrope, Italian stroppa and Portuguese estropo.[4] Barnhart and Etymonline take the Middle English word as perhaps from the Old French form,[10][3] Ayto thinks the French word reinforced it in the 14th century,[9] and Collins traces it through Middle Low German or Middle Dutch.[11] Strap is the same word in a dialect form.[4][9][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A band or thong, glossing Latin struppus, the leather loop that held an oar: in an Old English vocabulary.[4][5][6] In Middle English it is recorded from 1345–49 as a loop or strap on a harness;[10][3] the OED has it from 1357 as a sailors' ring of rope or hide.[4]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the word used to be a general term for a leather band or loop and has narrowed to the strip for sharpening razors.[9] From the 17th century the dialect form strap, which Ayto attributes to Scottish pronunciation, appeared beside it and took over most of its general senses;[4][9] Etymonline calls the division of senses between the two forms arbitrary.[3] Strop kept the nautical sense of a spliced ring of rope used as a fastening or for tackle,[4][7] and the razor strop is recorded from 1702.[4][10][3] The verb, to sharpen a razor on a strop, appears in 1841 in Dickens's Barnaby Rudge,[4][10][13] and the nautical verb, to fit a block with a strop, about 1860.[4] In Scottish and English dialect, strop-oil was a thrashing, like strap-oil, and in Shetland strops were braces.[14]

Timeline

  • Old English – a band or thong (obsolete by 1723).[4][5]
  • 1345–49 – strope, a loop or strap on a harness.[10][3]
  • 1357 – a ring of hide or spliced rope used on a ship as a fastening or for tackle.[4]
  • 1573 – a narrow band of metal (obsolete by 1603).[4][7]
  • 1702 – a strip of leather for sharpening razors.[4][10][3]
  • 1841 – verb, to sharpen a razor on a strop.[4][10][13][3]
  • c. 1860 – verb, to furnish a block with a strop.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A strip of leather or canvas, or a leather-covered piece of wood, used for sharpening a razor.[11][13][4]
  2. (nautical) A ring of rope with its ends spliced, or a metal band, put round a block or deadeye to hold or hang it.[11][13][4]
  3. (obsolete) A band or thong; a loop of leather.[4][7]

Verb

  1. To sharpen or smooth a razor on a strop: Every morning the barber stropped his razor before the first customer came in.[11][13][4]
  2. (nautical) To fit a block with a strop.[13][4]

Word family

  • stropper
  • razor strop

strop2 fit of temper

Confidence
Established
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1970 M. Tripp, Man without Friends
Ultimate origin
English stroppy

Etymology

The word for a fit of temper is a back-formation from English from stroppy, bad-tempered.[4][7][11][9] The Oxford Dictionary of English calls this origin probable and dates it to the 1970s.[15] Stroppy is recorded from 1951 and is perhaps a shortening of obstreperous;[4][9] Ayto finds no convincing link with the razor strop.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Belligerence or peevishness, and a fit of temper or a sulk: 1970, in M. Tripp's Man without Friends.[4]

Semantic evolution

The OED records the word both as a mass noun, belligerence (now rare), and as a count noun, a fit of temper or sulk,[4] which is the usual sense today in phrases such as in a strop.[7][16] In South African slang it meant trouble or backchat from 1977.[16]

Timeline

  • 1970 – belligerence; a fit of temper, a sulk.[4]
  • 1977 – (South Africa) trouble, backchat.[16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly British, informal) A fit of bad temper; a sulk or tantrum: He stormed out of the meeting in a strop.[11][7][4]
  2. (South Africa, slang) Trouble or backchat.[16]

Usage notes

In Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire dialect a separate verb strop meant to draw the last milk from a cow's udder with finger and thumb;[14] the OED records it from 1884 and compares strap and strip.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  6. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  14. ^ a b 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)
  15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Strop.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/strop. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·