estrapade

[prettygoodword]

estrapade (es-struh-PAID) - n., the rearing, plunging, and kicking actions of a horse trying to get rid of its rider.


From French, from Italian strappado, but what a strap has to do with it is obscure to me.

---L.

Comments

[movingfinger]

I'm wondering if the s is in fact the Italian negating s prefix, so that "strappare" is "des-trappare" meaning to come loose. The "trap" family of Indo-European words is large and various, though!

[prettygoodword]

It seems possible, but I've got nothing either for or against it.