Other forms: stirrups
A stirrup is the foot support hanging from a saddle. Put your foot in the stirrup, lengthen the stirrups, lose a stirrup.
It arrived in Europe from Asia around the eighth century and changed warfare completely, since a rider braced in one can strike with the weight of the horse behind the blow. The Old English means a climbing rope, which is what it first was.
1nounstirrupThe foot support hanging from a saddle.
“She put her foot in the stirrup and swung herself up onto the horse.”
stirrup is a support.
Old English stigrap means a climbing rope — stige, a climbing, plus rap, a rope.
Old English
stiġrāp — stirrup
Middle English
stirop
English, today
stirrup
From Middle English stirop, stirope, from Old English stiġrāp (“stirrup”), a compound of stiġe "ascent, descent, a going up or down"; related to stīġan (“to climb”) and rāp (“rope”), equivalent to sty + rope. Cognate with Dutch stegereep, stegelreep (“stirrup”), Old Saxon stigerēp (“stirrup”), Middle High German stereip, stegreif "stirrup"; > German Stegreif (“improvisation”), Icelandic stigreip (“stirrup”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA