strand
pronunciation
How to pronounce strand in British English:
UK [strænd]
How to pronounce strand in American English:
US [strænd]
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- Noun:
- a pattern forming a unity within a larger structural whole
- line consisting of a complex of fibers or filaments that are twisted together to form a thread or a rope or a cable
- a necklace made by a stringing objects together
- a very slender natural or synthetic fiber
- a poetic term for a shore (as the area periodically covered and uncovered by the tides)
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- Verb:
- leave stranded or isolated withe little hope og rescue
Word Origin
- strand (n.1)
- "shore, beach," Old English strand "sea-shore," from Proto-Germanic *strandaz (cognates: Danish and Swedish strand "beach, shore, strand," Old Norse strönd "border, edge, shore," Old Frisian strond, Middle Dutch strant, Dutch strand, Middle Low German strant, German Strand "beach"), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from PIE root *ster- "to stretch out." Strictly, the part of a shore that lies between the tide-marks. Formerly also used of river banks, hence the London street name (1246).
- strand (v.)
- 1620s, "to drive aground on a shore," from strand (n.1); figurative sense of "leave helpless," as of a ship left aground by the tide, is first recorded 1837. Related: Stranded; stranding.
- strand (n.2)
- "individual fiber of a rope, string, etc.," late 15c., probably from a continental Germanic source akin to Old High German streno "lock, tress, strand of hair," Middle Dutch strene "a skein, hank of thread," German Strähne "a skein, strand," of unknown connection. Perhaps to English via an Old French form.
Example
- 1. Scorching summer winds strand ships .
- 2. A strand of sceptical thought , behavioural economics , has been booming .
- 3. Your life runs through your ears , a strand as strong as desire , as light as fate .
- 4. Just this week strand 1 , a nano-satellite based on a google nexus one cell phone , was launched into space on an indian rocket .
- 5. And this powerfully british strand of social criticism continued into the 19th century with the owenites , the co-operative movement and joseph chamberlain 's new liberalism .