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Origin and history of strike

strike(v.)

Middle English striken, from Old English strican (past tense strac, past participle stricen) "pass lightly over, stroke, smooth, rub" (senses now obsolete), also "go, move, proceed, make one's way," from Proto-Germanic *strikanan (source also of Old Norse strykva "to stroke," Old Frisian strika, Middle Dutch streken, Dutch strijken "to smooth, stroke, rub," Old High German strihhan, German streichen), from PIE root *strig- "to stroke, rub, press" (see strigil).

It is related to streak (n.) and stroke, and perhaps influenced in sense development by cognate Old Norse striuka. The sense of "go proceed, advance" is preserved in strike for "go toward."

The transitive sense of "deal a blow" developed by early 14c. The meaning "collide, impinge upon," is from mid-14c.; that of "hit with a hammer" is from mid-14c.; that of "hit with a missile" is from late 14c. To strike while the iron is hot (1560s) is an image from blacksmithing.

The meaning "cancel or expunge" (as with the stroke of a pen) is attested from late 14c. It is attested from mid-15c. as "reach or conclude" an agreement, etc. To strike a balance is from the sense "balance accounts" (1530s).

As "produce" a fire or spark "by blows or strokes" (as with a flint), from mid-15c.; in reference to matches, by 1880. Of lightning, etc., late 14c.; of diseases 1520s; of God's punishments 1570s.

The sense of "stamp with a stroke," as a coin, etc., is by mid-15c. Hence the figurative sense "imprint on the mind, impress (one) strongly" (1610s).

Of clocks, "sound the hour" (intransitive), early 15c., from the hammer striking the bell; transitive sense of "cause to sound" (a specified time) is by 1510s.

The sense in strike a pose, attitude, etc. "put oneself determinedly in, fall into" is by 1825. The sense of "come upon, find unexpectedly" (of oil, ideas, etc.) is by 1835, especially in gold-mining, well-digging, etc., hence strike it rich (1854).

The use of the word in baseball is by 1853, but the sense has reversed (see strike (n.)).

The meaning "refuse to work to force an employer to meet demands" is from 1768, perhaps from the notion of striking or "downing" one's tools, or threatening or coercive action, or from a sailors' practice of striking (lowering) a ship's sails as a symbol of refusal to go to sea (1768), which preserves the verb's original sense of "make level, smooth."

To strike as "lower" (sails) is by early 13c., later in reference to lowering the flags or colors in token of respect, but then also to do so to surrender or yield. Hence also to let down a tent (1707), theater scenery, etc.

strike(n.)

1580s, "act of striking, a blow or darting at a prey," from strike (v.). The earlier noun was striking (n.), c. 1400.

The meaning "coordinated cessation of work by a body of employees" is from 1810 (in general strike). The extended sense (as in hunger strike) is by 1889. Strike-breaker "scab" is by 1904.

In baseball the word is recorded from 1841, originally "a hit, contact with the ball," no matter where it went. A hit ball that didn't land in fair play was a foul strike (by 1874, what would later be a foul ball), and it counted against the batter as a miss. As hit (n.) came to be used for "contact that puts the ball in play" and may score runs, strike was left for "a foul strike" as well as "a swing and a miss" both of which count against the batter.

These senses emerged by 1890s: in reference to the batter, "an unsuccessful attempt to hit the ball," 1896; and, in reference to the pitcher, "a ball so pitched to pass over home plate and which the umpire considers the batter should have swung at," 1891.

The figurative sense of having two strikes against (of a possible three), "be down to ones last opportunity" is from 1938. Strike zone, "imaginary rectangle with the batter's shoulders and knees as its top and bottom and home plate's edges as its sides," is by 1927. Compare the baseball shorthand use of K for "strikeout."

The bowling sense (also sometimes ten-strike), "a knocking down of all the pins with one ball" is attested by 1859. The meaning "sudden military attack" is attested from 1942.

also from 1580s

Entries linking to strike

hit(n.)

late 15c., "a rebuke;" 1590s, "a blow, stroke," from hit (v.). Meaning "successful play, song, person," etc., 1811, is from the verbal sense of "to hit the mark, succeed" (c. 1400). Underworld slang meaning "a killing" is from 1970, from the criminal slang verb meaning "to kill by plan" (1955). Meaning "dose of narcotic" is 1951, from phrases such as hit the bottle.

eleventh Roman letter, from Greek kappa, from Phoenician kaph or a similar Semitic source, said to mean literally "hollow of the hand" and to be so called for its shape.

Little used in classical Latin, which at an early age conformed most of its words (the exceptions had ritual importance) to a spelling using -c- (a character derived from Greek gamma). In Late Latin, pronunciation of -c- shifted (in the direction of "s"). Greek names brought into Latin also were regularized with a -c- spelling, and then underwent the Late Latin sound-shift; hence the modern pronunciation of Cyrus, Circe. To keep their pronunciation clear, the many Greek words (often Church words) that entered Latin after this shift tended to take Latin -k- for Greek kappa.

K- thus became a supplementary letter to -c- in Medieval Latin, used with Greek and foreign words. But most of the languages descended from Latin had little need of it, having evolved other solutions to the sound shifts.

K- also was scarce in Old English. After the Norman conquest, new scribal habits restricted -c- and expanded the use of -k-, which began to be common in English spelling from 13c. This probably was done because the sound value of -c- was evolving in French and the other letter was available to clearly mark the "k" sound for scribes working in English. For more, see C.

In words transliterated from Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Japanese, Hawaiian, etc., it represents several different sounds lumped. In modern use some of them are now with kh-; in older borrowings they often followed traditional English spelling and were written with a C- (Corea, Caaba, etc.).

As a symbol for potassium, it represents Latin kalium "potash." In CMYK as a color system for commercial printing it means "black" but seems to stand for key in a specialized printing sense. Slang meaning "one thousand dollars" is 1970s, from kilo-. K as a measure of capacity (especially in computer memory) meaning "one thousand" also is an abbreviation of kilo-.

As an indication of "strikeout" in baseball score-keeping it dates from 1874 and is said to represent the last letter of struck. The invention of the scorecard symbols is attributed to English-born U.S. newspaperman Henry Chadwick (1824-1908) principally of the old New York "Clipper," who had been writing baseball since 1858, and who explained it thus:

Smith was the first striker, and went out on three strikes, which is recorded by the figure "1" for the first out, and the letter K to indicate how put out, K being the last letter of the word "struck." The letter K is used in this instance as being easier to remember in connection with the word struck than S, the first letter, would be. [Henry Chadwick, "Chadwick's Base Ball Manual," London, 1874]