strain
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /stɹeɪn/
rhymes: -eɪn
Forms: form: strains
Etymology: From Middle English streen, strene, streon, istreon (“race, stock, generation”), from Old English strēon, ġestrēon (“gain, wealth”), from Proto-Germanic *streuną (“heap, treasure, profit, gain”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread, strew”) (cognate with Old Saxon gistriuni, Old High German gistriuni (“gain, property, wealth, business”), Latin strues (“heap”)). Confused in Middle English with the related noun strend, strynd, strund, from Old English strȳnd (“race; stock”), from strēonan, strȳnan (“to beget; acquire”). Related also to Dutch struinen (“to prowl, root about, rout”).
Senses: examples: text: He is of a noble strain.
ref: 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
text: […] with animals and plants a cross between different varieties, or between individuals of the same variety but of another strain, gives vigour and fertility to the offspring; […]
ref: 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Natural Selection”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 96:
glosses: Race; lineage, pedigree.
examples: text: They say this year's flu virus is a particularly virulent strain.
text: European scientists have discovered a new strain of the virus that causes AIDS and linked it to gorillas, creating a mystery about when and how the first patient found to have the strain became infected.
ref: 2009 August 4, Lawrence K. Altman, “New Strain of H.I.V. Is Discovered”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
coordinate_terms: cultivar
quasispecies
variety
glosses: A particular variety of a microbe, virus, or other organism, usually a taxonomically infraspecific one.
examples: text: There is a strain of madness in her family.
text: Intemperance and Luſt breed infirmities and diſeaſes, which, being propagated, ſpoil the Strain of a Nation.
ref: 1671, John Tillotson, “Prov[erbs] xiv. 34.”, in Sermons Preach’d upon Several Occasions, London: […] A[nne] M[axwell] for Sa[muel] Gellibrand, […], →OCLC, page 135:
synonyms: propensity
proneness
glosses: Hereditary character, quality, tendency, or disposition.
examples: text: Yet Keats, though for so many years he has given nothing to the world, is understood to have devoted himself to the composition of an epic poem. Some passages of it have been communicated to the inner circle of his admirers, and impressed them as the loftiest strains that have been audible on earth since Milton’s days.
ref: 1846, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “P.'s Correspondence”, in Mosses from an Old Manse:
text: A baby gurgled, a photographer dropped her lens cap, and the strains of the U.S. Army Brass Quintet echoed off the murals depicting seminal moments in American history.
ref: 2024, Christa Case Bryant, As US marks 9/11, a divided Congress unites to honor 13 fallen in Afghanistan, in: The Christian Science Monitor, September 11, 2024
topics: communications
entertainment
journalism
lifestyle
literature
media
music
poetry
publishing
writing
synonyms: theme
motive
manner
style
glosses: Any sustained note or movement; a song; a distinct portion of an ode or other poem; also, the pervading note, or burden, of a song, poem, etc.
glosses: Language that is eloquent, poetic, or otherwise heightened.
examples: text: the common strain
ref: 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Fifth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
glosses: A kind or sort (of person etc.).
glosses: Treasure.
glosses: The blood-vessel in the yolk of an egg.
Derived terms: Andromeda strain
Delta strain
omicron strain
Omicron strain
Related terms: strew