Etymologically
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gripper

Etymology and origin of the French word gripper

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Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1405
Ultimate origin
Frankish (*grīpan)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɡʁi.pe/[1]

Forms

gripper[1]

Etymology

It probably goes back to Frankish *grīpan (“to grasp, seize”),[2][3][4][5] compare Middle Dutch “gripen”, Old High German grīfan and German greifen;[2][3] Wiktionary takes it from Proto-Germanic *grīpaną.[1] The word seems to have existed long before it was written: its derivatives “agripper” (about 1200) and “gripaille” (13th century) are earlier, and its use was long confined to the slang of swindlers and thieves.[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg think the verb may instead be derived from the noun grippe, from a Frankish “*grip”, as griffer is from griffe.[6][2]

Spanish gripar is borrowed from French.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bloch and Wartburg date it to 1405; the Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris (1425) has it in the sense “to seize violently”.[6][2]

Semantic evolution

In 1509 it was to seize with claws, in 1585 to filch (Noël du Fail), and in 1649 to collar a thief (Scarron); La Fontaine's servants have their cock grippée.[2][7] Être grippé de “to be infatuated with” is in Mme de Sévigné (1684).[2] These senses are now obsolete.[3]

From the 18th century it was a technical verb: of fabrics, to pucker (Académie, 1740), whence the medical face grippée (1814), and of a machine, to seize up through friction (Encyclopédie, 1757), whence grippage (1869) and in the 20th century the transitive “to cause to seize”.[2][3] The noun grippe, first “claw” and “quarrel”, then “whim” (prendre en grippe), named influenza from 1743, because it seizes suddenly, English and German took grippe in the 1770s and 1780s.[3][6]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – Agripper.[3]
  • 1405 – Gripper.[6]
  • 1425 – “To seize”, in the Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris.[2]
  • 1585 – “To filch”.[2]
  • 1680 – Grippe-sou.[3]
  • 1740 – Of fabric, “to pucker”.[2]
  • 1743 – Grippe “influenza”.[3]
  • 1757 – Of a machine, “to seize up”.[2]
  • 1869 – Grippage.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of a mechanism, to seize up, jam: le moteur a grippé, (reflexive) se gripper.[8][9]
  2. To cause (a mechanism) to seize: la rouille a grippé la serrure.[8][9]
  3. Of fabric, to pucker.[8][10]
  4. (obsolete) To grab, snatch; to collar (a thief).[8][11]

Word family

  • grippe
  • agripper
  • grippe-sou
  • grippage
  • dégripper
  • griffe
  • griffer
  • grimper

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 16, 73a
  6. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  10. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  11. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
Cite this entry

“Gripper.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/gripper. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

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