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[OE] Strike comes from a prehistoric Germanic base which denoted ‘touch lightly’ – a sense which survived into English (‘That good horse blessed he then, and lovingly struck its mane’, Sir Ferumbras 1380). The more violent modern sense ‘hit hard’ did not begin to encroach until the 13th century. The related stroke retains the original meaning, but another relative, streak, has also lost it. All three go back to West Germanic *strīk-, *straik-, which in turn were descended from the Indo-European base *strig-, *streig-, *stroig-, source of Latin strigilis ‘tool for scraping the skin after a bath’ (acquired by English as strigil [16]). The use of strike for ‘withdraw labour’ developed in the mid-18th century (it is first recorded in the Annual Register 1768: ‘This day the hatters struck, and refused to work till their wages are raised’). It probably comes from the notion of ‘downing’ one’s tools, as in strike a sail ‘lower a sail’.
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