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[OE] Stretch comes from a prehistoric West Germanic *strakkjan (source also of German strecken and Dutch strekken). This was formed from a base *strak-, which probably also produced English straggle [14]. It is not certain where *strak- came from, but probably it was an alteration of *strak- ‘rigid’ (source of English starch and stark). Reversal of speech sounds (here a and r) is quite common; the process is known as metathesis. The notions of ‘rigidity’ and ‘stretching’ do not appear very compatible at first sight, but it is thought that the original application of stretch was to ‘stretching the limbs’, in the sense of making them straight or ‘stiff’. Straight comes from a former past participle of stretch.
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