Strype

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An obsolete word for a stripe, meaning a long narrow band or streak of colour or material on a surface
2. Archaic term for a line or band that differs in colour or texture from the surface around it
3. A dated variant of stripe, referring to a streak or band marked along something such as cloth or wood

Etymology: Strype is simply an older spelling of "stripe", and it was the normal form in Middle English, when the word first entered the language from the Low Countries. Its ancestor was a Germanic term, reconstructed as "*strīpô", and its relatives are still in daily use across the region: Dutch "streep", German "Streifen", Danish "stribe", and West Frisian "stripe". The shared sense across these languages is a narrow band or line, which is the same idea the English word keeps today. The "y" in the older spelling was a medieval scribal habit, not a different sound or meaning. Over the following centuries the spelling settled on "stripe", and "strype" dropped out of use, so the word now survives mainly in historical texts and dictionaries.