Etymologically
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trip

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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
  • 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)