trip

Pronunciation

• IPA: /trɪp/^[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English trippen (“to tread lightly, skip”),^[2][3] borrowed from Old French triper (“to jump about, dance; to strike with the feet”),^[4][2] treper, from a Germanic source,^[4][2] probably Middle Dutch trippen (“to skip, hop”).^[5][6] It is related to Low German trippeln and Dutch trappen “to tread”, and to treppan (“to tread, trample”),^[4][3] from the source of trap.^[4][2] The noun is from the verb.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To move lightly and nimbly, to skip or dance: about 1386, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,^[7] about 1390 in Barnhart.^[2] The noun, an act of tripping or a stumble, is from before 1420, in Lydgate's Troy Book,^[2] the early 14th century in Etymonline.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Early on the word meant dancing and nimble movement as well as stumbling.^[8] The senses “to stumble” and “to make someone stumble” are from the mid-15th century (about 1425 and 1440 in Barnhart).^[4][2] The figurative “to err, go wrong” is from about 1500, and “to catch someone in a fault” from the 1550s.^[4] The noun meant a light, lively movement before it meant a journey;^[8] a short run on land is from about 1440,^[7] and a short voyage between two points, originally a sailor's term, from 1691.^[7][8] The connection between the two senses is uncertain.^[4] An excursion for pleasure is from about 1749.^[7] To trip a catch or lever, releasing a mechanism, is a later technical sense.^[9][4] A drug-induced hallucination is from 1959 as a noun and 1966 as a verb.^[4][8]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – to skip, dance.^[7]
• before 1420 – noun, a stumble.^[2]
• c. 1425 – to make someone stumble.^[2]
• c. 1440 – a short journey on land.^[7]
• c. 1500 – to err.^[4]
• 1691 – a short voyage.^[7][2]
• c. 1749 – an excursion for pleasure.^[7]
• 1959 – a psychedelic drug experience.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A journey from one place to another, especially a short one.
2. A stumble or fall; a move that makes someone stumble.
3. A mistake, a blunder.
4. (slang) A hallucinatory experience caused by a psychedelic drug; any intense experience.
5. A device that releases a catch or mechanism.

Verb

1. To catch the foot and stumble; to make someone stumble.
2. To move with light, quick steps; to skip.
3. To make a mistake; to catch someone in one: tripped up by a question.
4. To release a catch or switch a mechanism on or off.
5. (slang) To have a drug-induced hallucination.

Word family

• round-trip
• trippy
• tripmeter
• atrip
• tripper
• tripwire
• trippant
• trip hammer

Related words

• trap
• tread
• trippingly

Usage notes

A separate noun trip, “a small flock of sheep or goats”, of unknown origin, is from 1305 and survived in dialect from Northern England to Wiltshire.^[7][10][11]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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)