strike [OE] In Anglo-Saxon times to strike was ‘to go or flow’ or ‘to rub lightly’, close in meaning to the related word stroke [OE] which shares a Germanic root. By the Middle Ages striking had become more forceful, and the word was being used in the familiar sense ‘hit’. To strike while the iron is hot is a metaphor from the blacksmith’s forge, where iron can only be hammered into shape while it is hot. The proverb is quoted by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1386 and used in a slightly modified form by Shakespeare in Henry VI Part 3: ‘Strike now, or else the iron cools.’ The sort of strike that involves stopping work as a protest was first heard of in 1810, but the verb, meaning ‘to go on strike’, was M18th and comes from the sense ‘to lower a mast or flag’ [ME]—if you strike sail then you are no longer actively sailing. Three strikes and you’re out [E20th] comes from baseball—if a batter has three ‘strikes’, or unsuccessful attempts to hit a pitched ball, they ‘strike out’ [M20] or are out.