Etymology: Late (and rare) Old English treppe, træppe (in coltetræppe), Middle English trappe, trapp, agrees in form and sense with rare Middle Dutch trappe trap, gin, snare, modern West Flemish traap, trape (De Bo), in Kilian, 1599, ‘trappe (old word) mouse-trap, trap’; also with medieval Latin trappa, trapa, in Salic Law vii. 10 (manuscripts of 8–9th cent.), ‘trap’, Old French trape (12th cent.), French trappe, Provençal trapa, Portuguese trapa, Spanish trampa; compare also Italian trappola (diminutive of *trappa); all in sense ‘trap, pitfall, gin, snare’. The relations between the Romanic words and the Dutch and Flemish, and the relation of the latter to Middle Dutch and Middle Low German trappe, treppe ‘step, stair’, are difficult to determine. The Old English treppe , træppe , and Middle Flemish trappe , West Flemish traap , trape , are generally held to be originally either the same word as Middle Dutch and Middle Low German trappe , ‘stair, flight of steps, step’, or a derivative of the same verbal stem *trapp- (the non-nasalized original of *trampan to tread, Low German trappen ), for the supposed reason that a ‘trap’ was originally something laid for a beast to tread or step upon, and thus to be either caught by a gin or snare, or precipitated into a deep pit (compare pitfall n.). But it is difficult to conceive trappe, treppe used at once in the general sense ‘stair or step’, and in the very specific one of ‘trap, snare, gin’. It has also to be noticed that it is only in Middle Dutch or rather Middle Flemish that the word is known in both senses; for in Old English (and English generally, down to 18th cent.) træppe, trap had (like the Romanic trappa) only the sense of ‘device for catching, gin, snare’, while Middle Low German trappe, treppe, and thence modern German, and the Scandinavian languages, have only the sense ‘stair’ or ‘step of a stair’. (Old High German has a single instance of trapa weak feminine as a gloss to Latin tenda, but this rather looks like an adoption or re-adoption from medieval Latin.) The actual relation of these words or senses is thus very obscure.

Etymology: Altered form of French drap cloth, covering = Provençal drap, Spanish trapo, Portuguese trapo, Italian drappo < medieval Latin drappus cloth (Capit. Charles the Bald a850), of uncertain origin: see Diez, and etymological note below.It is clear that 14th cent. trap and trappure (later trapper n.¹) correspond to Old French drap and drapure . The question is how these French words in dr- have tr- in English. This may have been an English change, due to influence of trap n.¹ in other senses. But the trap form may have existed in Anglo-Norman or even in French dialects. Du Cange has trapus (one example) for medieval Latin drappus ; Portuguese and Spanish have trapo ‘clout, rag’, formerly ‘cloth’, also trapero (draper), trapería , trapajo ; medieval (Anglo-)Latin had trappatura , the ordinary equivalent of trappure , Old French trappeüre : see trapper n.¹

Etymology: apparently = Dutch, Middle Flemish trap flight of steps, stair; Middle Dutch, early modern Dutch (Kilian) trappe step; Old Frisian treppe step of a ladder, etc., East Frisian trappe , trap step (of a stair), also (= trap-ledder ) ladder with broad flat steps instead of rungs, flight of steps; Middle Low German trappe , treppe , troppe flight of steps, stair, whence Middle German trappe , treppe , German, Low German treppe stair; also (from Middle Low German), Danish trappe , Swedish trappa , Norwegian dialect trapp , tropp flight of steps, stair. But the Scots trap is by some referred directly to trap n.¹, as if short for trap-ladder or trap-stair, in sense of a ladder or stair leading up to a trapdoor or trap-hole.

Etymology: History obscure; apparently connected with the continental words trap , trappe step: see trap n.³ (Perhaps introduced by foreign miners in 16th cent.)

Etymology: < Swedish trapp (Bergman 1766), so named from the stairlike appearance often presented by the rock, < trappa stair: see trap n.³

Etymology: < Old French trappe a baking-tin for tarts (1395 in Godefroy).

Etymology: Origin unclear. Probably some slang application of trap n.¹ The explanation in quot. 1938 at main sense is unsupported.

Etymology: Shortened form.

Etymology: Middle English trappen < Old English *træppan in betræppan , (be)treppan (betrap v.¹), < træp , trap n.¹ Compare also attrap v.¹, entrap v.¹ (from French), which may have contributed to the English verb.