trip
Meaning
to catch your foot on something and fall or almost fall
to walk, run, or dance with quick, light steps
to make a mistake or to cause someone to make a mistake
a journey to a place and back again, especially for pleasure or a particular purpose
an experience in which someone takes a drug that affects their mind and makes them imagine things
Usage
she tripped over the loose carpet and dropped her books.
we're planning a weekend trip to the mountains.
the complicated question tripped up even the most experienced candidates.
Etymology
The word 'trip' originates from the Middle English 'trippen', meaning to step lightly, skip, or stumble. This, in turn, was borrowed from the Old French 'triper', of similar meaning. The Old French term is likely of Germanic origin, possibly from a Frankish source related to the Middle Dutch 'trippen' (to skip, hop). The core semantic connection lies in the concept of a light, quick step. From this literal sense of movement, the meanings naturally branched out: a mis-step led to 'stumble', the light stepping motion evolved into the sense of a short journey or excursion, and the idea of causing to stumble extended metaphorically to mean causing to make a mistake. The modern drug-related sense is a mid-20th century metaphorical extension, likening the hallucinogenic experience to a mental journey or a stumble from reality.
Analysis
The word 'trip' is a simplex word of Germanic origin. It is not productively formed from smaller, meaningful morphemes in Modern English.