In the Middle Ages, Latin was the international language of science; today, English has successfully taken this place. In this regard, Anglicism has become commonplace in any country. Among these terms is the significant noun strike, which over the past ten years has successfully taken root in most Slavic and non-Slavic languages. Let's look at the translation and meaning of the word “strike”, and also learn its history.
Etymology of the name "strike"
Oddly enough, the term originally studied did not originate in English and not in Latin, but in Proto-German. Its ancestor was the word strikan, which is also found in Old Norse, Dutch, Danish and Frisian languages.
Once in the Old English, the term has undergone minimal changes (instead of k they began to write with - strican - strac - stricen) and began to be used in the meaning of "go", "move", "go".
Further history of the acquisition of new meanings by the word
Such an interpretation of this term as “strike” arose later - at the beginning of the XIV century. And by the middle of the same century, the strike acquired another meaning - “collide”.
Most likely, this word was used mainly by military people, because by the end of the century it also began to mean a specific missile strike and “cancel” or “delete something”.
During the XV century. this name was not given new meanings, but in the XVI century. everything has changed. So, in 1530 with this word there were stable phrases strike a balance (to summarize / balance) and strike for (strike).
Fifty years later, it also began to be used not only as a verb, but also as a verb noun.
Since 1768, the term strike has been the name of strikes organized by workers and sailors. There is a version that a similar value was obtained due to the fact that, protesting against difficult working conditions and low pay, sailors lowered sails (striking a ship's sails), and workers pounded with tools (striking one's tools).
In the middle of the XIX century. the word begins to be used in the meaning of "invent, find." Based on it, a few years later the expression strike it rich arose - “succeed”.
After a couple of years in the USA, the term began to refer to specific baseball vocabulary. At first, it meant "any contact with the ball." By the end of the century, this word began to mean in baseball "swing and miss."
Since 1859, this term also began to be used by bowling players.
Since 1942, a strike is also a sudden military attack. Although in this sense the word in question is not used very often. Most likely, this value is associated with the events of World War II.
Strike: English translation
Having examined the history of the acquisition of the studied term of different meanings, it is worth to find out how it is interpreted in the modern language. First of all, you need to remember that this term appears both as a noun and as a verb.
As a strike noun, a translation has this: various types of strokes, combat, boycott, and similarly significant words.
As a verb, the term in question has more than 50 semantic nuances. Almost all of them are associated with “strike”, “pierce”, “penetrate”, “strike”, etc. It is worth noting that most of these interpretations arose in the American version of the English language.
Baseball strike
Having considered how the word under study is translated, it is worth learning more about what this term means in baseball today.
According to modern rules, a strike is a game situation in which the batter (batsman) does not hit the ball during the throw. It is worth noting that, unlike the XIX century. and the beginning of XX, now this term is used not only when the batter missed, but also in a situation where he did not hit or waved at all, but did not hit at the last moment.
If a batsman misses a ball thrown to him three times, a strike-out occurs and the batter is eliminated from the game.
What does strike mean in bowling?
If baseball, in addition to the USA, has taken root in few places, then another American game, bowling, is quite popular all over the world.
Its rules also use the specific term strike. However, it has a slightly different meaning than in baseball.
Here the strike is not a miss, but rather a masterful throw of the ball, which immediately knocks all the pins off at once. A synonym for it can be considered a “perfect hit”.
Thus, a bowling strike is a throw of the ball that every player in this sport dreams of mastering.
It is interesting that modern researchers of the etymology of the term strike still cannot find an explanation of why in one and the same country in two games one word has diametrically opposite meanings.
Strike in options
Another area of application of this noun is trading (trading securities on the stock exchange).
Here we know such a specialized concept as “strike price” (strike price) or as it is also called “strike price”. This is the name of the value set in the option at which the buyer can purchase or sell the underlying asset of the current option. In this case, the seller of the option agrees to sell or buy the corresponding amount of the underlying asset.
Meaning of the noun strike in Ukrainian
An interesting fact: the term in question in the meaning of “strike” is not used in the Russian language. But in the Ukrainian and Belarusian - yes, and without changes - "strike".
Also, this word is preserved in Polish (strajk), Croatian (štrajk), Bosnian (štrajk), Macedonian (trajk) and Slovak (štrajk).
It is interesting that for some reason the term in question did not take root in other related languages. So, in Bulgarian, a strike is a strike, in Czech it is stávka, in Slovenian it is stavke.
So far, scientists have not found the regularity of the distribution of the described term, because all Slavic languages in which “strike” means “strike” belong to different branches and groups, and different factors influenced the formation of their vocabulary.