February 19, 2006: Origin of the word "strike" as an action in the labor movement
The Oxford English Dictionary records not only the definition of a given word, but also its history, providing quotes of the earliest known use of a word in writing, in every sense of its meaning. This dictionary verifies the earliest use of the term "strike" in the sense of not only ceasing work due to a dispute with an employer but the prevention of the workplace from functioning. On sailing ships "to strike" means to lower the sails or yardarms (the horizontal parts on a mast from which square sails hang). With the yardarms (or yards, for short) struck the square rigged ship can not move. From the OED: "1768 ... A body of sailors .. proceeded .. to Sunderland .. and at the cross there read a paper, setting forth their grievances .. After this the went on board the several ships in that harbour, and struck (lowered down) the yards, in order to prevent them from proceeding to sea." Later that same year: "This day the hatters *struck* and refused to work till their wages are raised." Notes in the OED next to these examples clearly link them.
The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd ed. / prepared by J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner. (Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1989).
My mother as a small child looking out of her Greenwich Village apartment window watched police beat women and children across the street from men on strike in an attempt to draw the workers out from a barricaded position. My mother would have taken a beating too had she been outside at the time.
