How did kid + nap come to mean abduct? [closed]
How did kid + nap come to mean abduct? [closed]
Why do the words kid and nap become kidnap as a meaning of abduct, when did that take form and why?
Additionally, if nap is really nab, why did nab become nap?
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
@Shmuel Google now finds etymology results. That means that, if you are curious about the origin of words, you can find a lot of them by just googling
<word> etymology. It won't find every case, but it's a good quick starting point :)– xDaizu
Aug 30 at 12:11
<word> etymology
So if you haven't even looked in a dictionary, would you agree that the downvote reason "does not show any research effort" apply?
– pipe
Aug 30 at 12:34
@pipe Educating users that they should research before asking is good, but some users don't get the rhetorical question - "tone is hard to decipher online". Just use "normal sentence" instead.
– user314366
Aug 30 at 13:30
@user314366 It is not a rhetorical question - it's a genuine question I would like an answer to. I have seen that some users show a complete disregard for any policies but other users are simply not aware of them.
– pipe
Aug 30 at 13:35
1 Answer
1
From etymology online:
Kidnap: https://www.etymonline.com/word/kidnap#etymonline_v_1845
1680s, thieves' cant, a compound of kid (n.) "child" and nap (v.) "snatch away," which probably is a variant of nab (v.). Perhaps a back-formation from kidnapper, which is recorded earlier. Originally "to steal children to provide servants and laborers in the American colonies."
Nab: https://www.etymonline.com/word/nab
"to catch (someone)," 1680s, probably a variant of dialectal nap "to seize, catch, lay hold of" (1670s, now surviving only in kidnap), which possibly is from Scandinavian
when did that take form and why?
when did that take form and why?
There is no mystery behind it. Nap is a spelling variant of nab.
In the words of Terry Pratchett,
It's written in Old, before they invented spelling.– Separatrix
Aug 30 at 14:29
It's written in Old, before they invented spelling
@Separatrix One of my many favorite Pratchett quotes.
– xLeitix
Aug 30 at 14:40
Those who are down voting should also explain the reason.
– ubi hatt
Aug 31 at 16:03
Have you looked up the word in a good dictionary (and maybe, further)?
– Kris
Aug 30 at 11:29