There is a bit of water in the Persian Gulf that is in the news almost every day now—the ‘strait’ of Hormuz.
Which, for us wordies, raises the interesting question of the origin and meaning of the word ‘strait’ and whether or not it is related to the more familiar spelling of ‘straight’.
So, what’s the answer?
I have done some digging into the story behind these words (or, I have done a ‘deep dive’ as the current stupid slang says) and I don’t think those two words are related.
Certainly not in their history.
‘Strait’ first appears in English in the 1300s.
It came into Middle English from Old French—and somewhere deep in the background behind the French word was a Latin source word (more on which in a moment).
The core meaning of ‘strait’ is ‘tight, narrow’—which exactly explains its use in reporting on the Iran War, because the body of water that is called the Strait of Hormuz is definitely ‘tight and narrow’—which is why it is also dangerous.
There are other bodies of water around the world that share the same descriptive title—for instance the Strait of Singapore.
The old expression ‘the strait and narrow’ means a narrow path.
But that expression is sometimes spelled ‘straight and narrow’ because the two words are easily confused.
‘Straight’ came into English well before ‘strait’—sometime in the very early 1200s.
It always had the meaning of not bent, not deviating or curved.
This one comes from a Germanic source word—not from Latin via French. And the background source of ‘straight’ is the word ‘stretch’.
If you stretch a piece of string (or anything for that matter) the result is that it is ‘straight’ (direct, without deviations).
Meanwhile, the Latin word that lies in the background behind ‘strait’ is strictus meaning ‘strict’ or ‘stringent’ (giving us the notion of narrowness, or confinement).
Despite these clear differences the Oxford says they show: ‘considerable overlap in form and some proximity in meaning.’
Which I think we’d already worked out for ourselves!
Tonight I will join Peta Credlin on Sky News for 'Words Matter.'
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