{"id":23936,"date":"2025-03-12T16:14:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T16:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23936"},"modified":"2025-03-12T16:33:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T16:33:59","slug":"strong-strings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23936","title":{"rendered":"Strong Strings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Are the words <strong>string<\/strong>, <strong>strong<\/strong>, <strong>strength<\/strong>, <strong>strait<\/strong>, <strong>stretch<\/strong> and <strong>strict<\/strong> related? Let&#8217;s find out.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mary_hutchison\/20540114536\/in\/photolist-xi4srN-26oukar-7QGk5w-2iTBcEA-2eDyN4F-2jWXGFE-4mEURz-2cADeqZ-hmtVq-4T2MMV-7b324-8gu4X3-2gdJYNY-82V5bp-269s5Uu-86Maky-27BnpbM-24vMtus-oXWafa-4HPLfA-2pnLkLE-7QGkyQ-ST4YAb-dTKj5A-685anQ-63natN-2qxFPGx-bjQBqE-4BQwUP-9F15PA-zoFHNe-dLq9We-7WyZeo-sqifkY-2qxe3Ez-5Armjr-dV8feg-iihzE-7eY7ma-G9y8HN-8md4bx-3TifTk-7UYdrL-73bjX2-q4L4aa-3TidxK-pMyEHa-dLq5ec-5AZXz3-dRTqhm\" title=\"Ball of string\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5784\/20540114536_cc1beb8824_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"Ball of string\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>String<\/strong> comes from Middle English <em>streng<\/em> (rope, cord, line, thread, string, ribbon, muscle, tendon, ligament, filament), from Old English <em>stren\u0121<\/em> (string, rope, cord), from Proto-West Germanic <em>*strangi<\/em> (string), from Proto-Germanic <em>*strangiz<\/em> (string), from Proto-Indo-European <em>*streng\u02b0-<\/em> (to twist; rope, cord), possibly from <em>*sterh\u2083-<\/em> (to spread, extend, stretch out) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/string#English\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>English words from the same roots include <strong>constrict<\/strong>, <strong>constrain<\/strong>, <strong>restrict<\/strong>, <strong>strong<\/strong>, <strong>strength<\/strong>, <strong>strain<\/strong>, <strong>strait<\/strong>, <strong>stress<\/strong>,  <strong>strict<\/strong>, <strong>stricture<\/strong> and <strong>stringent<\/strong>. <\/p>\n<p>Words from the same roots in other languages include <strong>stringere<\/strong> (to clasp, grasp, squeeze) in Italian, <strong>\u00e9treindre<\/strong> (to hug, clutch, grip) in French, <strong>streng<\/strong> (strict, severe, rigorous, unbending, cruel) in Dutch, <strong>str\u00e4ng<\/strong> (strict, stern, severe) in Swedish, <strong>strangs<\/strong> (brave, brisk, fresh) in Latvian, <strong>rankka<\/strong> (burdensome, hard, intense, harsh, tough) in Finnish [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European\/streng%CA%B0-\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>So, the odd one out in the list above is <strong>stretch<\/strong>, which comes from Middle English <em>strecchen<\/em> (to stretch out, spread, extend), from Old English <em>stre\u010b\u010ban<\/em> (to stretch, extend, spread out, prostrate), from Proto-West Germanic <em>*strakkjan<\/em> (to stretch, make straight), from <em>*strak<\/em> (stretched,  straight), from Proto-Germanic <em>*strakaz<\/em> (stretched,  straight) from Proto-Indo-European <em>*(s)treg-<\/em> (stiff, rigid).<\/p>\n<p>Words from the same roots include <strong>stark<\/strong> in English, <strong>stark<\/strong> (strong) in German, <strong>strak<\/strong> (taut, tight) in Dutch, <strong>str\u00e6kke<\/strong> (to stretch) in Danish, and <strong>shtriqem<\/strong> (to stretch) in Albanian [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/stretch#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a tune from the music session I went to last night called <em>The Bishop of Bangor&#8217;s Jig<\/em>. It&#8217;s played on string instruments (fiddle, guitar and banjo), so is sort connected to the theme of this post.<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-23936-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/BishopofBangorsJig.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/BishopofBangorsJig.mp3\">http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/BishopofBangorsJig.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>You can find the dots: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.folktunefinder.com\/tunes\/94828\">https:\/\/www.folktunefinder.com\/tunes\/94828<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are the words string, strong, strength, strait, stretch and strict related? Let&#8217;s find out. String comes from Middle English streng (rope, cord, line, thread, string, ribbon, muscle, tendon, ligament, filament), from Old English stren\u0121 (string, rope, cord), from Proto-West Germanic *strangi (string), from Proto-Germanic *strangiz (string), from Proto-Indo-European *streng\u02b0- (to twist; rope, cord), possibly from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[183,100,102,104,107,109,111,116,128,10,16,26,29,33,44,45,202,67,78],"tags":[164,158,138,281,363,163],"class_list":["post-23936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-albanian-shqip","category-danish","category-dutch","category-english","category-etymology","category-finnish","category-french","category-german","category-italian","category-language","category-latvian","category-middle-english","category-music","category-old-english-aenglisc","category-proto-germanic","category-proto-indo-european","category-proto-west-germanic","category-swedish","category-words-and-phrases","tag-english","tag-etymology","tag-language","tag-omniglot","tag-string","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23936"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23942,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23936\/revisions\/23942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}