Middle English striden, from Old English stridan (past tense strad, past participle striden), "to straddle, mount" (a horse), from Proto-Germanic *stridanan (source also of Middle Low German strede "stride, strive;" Old Saxon stridian, Danish stride, Swedish strida "to fight," Dutch strijden, Old High German stritan, German streiten "to fight, contend, struggle," Old Norse striðr "strong, hard, stubborn, severe"). Boutkan gives it no IE etymology.
The sense of "walk with long or extended steps" in English is from c. 1200, usually implying haste. The figurative meaning "advance rapidly, make progress" is from c. 1600. The transitive sense of "pass over by a long step" is from 1570s. The meaning "sit astride on, straddle" is from mid-14c.
The senses having to do with walking and standing (compare astride) are found only in English and Low German, the Continental cognates mostly meaning "to fight, to struggle." OED tentatively offers that the shifted sense (if it is that) might be via the notion of "strong effort" involved in making long strides or striving forward.
"a step in walking," especially a long one, from Old English stride "a stride, a step," from the root of stride (v.). Compare Dutch strijd, Old High German strit, German Streit "fight, contention, combat," Swedish and Danish strid "combat, contention." For the different Germanic senses, see the verb.
It is also attested in Old English as a measure of distance, roughly the length of an adult human stride. The meaning "a standing with the legs apart, a straddle" is from 1590s. Strides (1889) was criminal slang for "trousers, pants, jeans."
In reference to animals (especially horses), it is attested by 1610s; hence by 19c. "regular uniform movement in a race," hence colloquial hit (one's) stride "attain in action the state or condition where one does best." In reference to persons, "a striding gait," by 1670s. To take (something) in stride (1832), i.e. "without change of gait," originally is of horses leaping hedges in the hunting-field; the figurative sense of this is attested from 1902.
Jazz music stride tempo is attested from 1938, probably in reference to the left hand's alternating one-octave stretch from the single note to the chord; stride piano is by 1952, a style associated with Fats Waller and others.
1560s, "spread the legs wide, stand or walk with the legs wide apart," probably an alteration of striddle (mid-15c.), a frequentative of striden (see stride (v.)). The transitive sense "place one leg on one side of and the other on the other side of" is from 1670s. U.S. colloquial figurative sense of "take up an equivocal position, appear to favor both sides" is attested from 1838. Related: Straddled; straddling.
The noun is attested by 1610s, "act of standing with the legs far apart;" the figurative use in stock-market investment and poker is from 19c.
"one who strides" in any sense, 1805, agent noun from stride (v.).
c. 1200, "discord, contention; a quarrel, a fight; action of striving," from Anglo-French estreif, Old French estrif "fight, battle, combat, conflict; torment, distress; dispute, quarrel," variant of estrit "quarrel, dispute, impetuosity." Not found outside French, it is commonly thought to be from Frankish *strid "strife, combat" or another Germanic source (compare Old High German strit "quarrel, dispute") and related to a Germanic verb represented by Old High German stritan "to fight" and English stride (v.) in its oldest sense.
A variant form strift "quarrel, contention" (c. 1400), later "action of striving" (1610s) is now obsolete; compare thrive/thrift, drive/drift, shrive/shrift.
"half a poetic line," 1570s, from French hémistiche (16c.) or directly from Late Latin hemistichium, from Greek hēmistikhion "half-line, half-verse," from hēmi- "half" (see hemi-) + stikhos "row, line of verse," from PIE *stigho-, suffixed form of root *steigh- "to stride, step, rise" (see stair). Related: Hemistichal.
