straw [OE] An Old English word related to strew [OE]that shares an ancient ancestor with Latin sternere ‘to lay flat’. To draw the short straw [M19th] comes from drawing lots by holding several straws of varying lengths with one end concealed in your hand and then inviting people to take one each. The old proverb a drowning man will clutch at a straw, recorded in various forms since the mid 16th century, is nowadays often found in the abbreviated version to clutch (or grasp) at straws. Another old proverb provides the last (or final) straw, referring to a final minor difficulty or annoyance that, coming on top of a whole series of others, makes a situation unbearable. The full version is it is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. Earlier variations included the last feather breaks the horse’s back, which dates back to the mid 17th century. No one is really sure what strawberries [OE] have got to do with straw. One possible explanation is that a strawberry’s runners reminded people of straw strewn on floors. Another is that the name of the fruit refers to the small seeds scattered over its surface, which resemble tiny pieces of straw or chaff.