Old English strēaw, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch stroo and German Stroh, also to strew.

• An Old English word related to strew that shares an ancient ancestor with Latin sternere ‘to lay flat’. Straws crop up in various common English expressions. The person who ends up being chosen to perform an unpleasant task can be said to draw the short straw, 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. A person in danger of drowning would try to grab hold of anything to keep afloat, the source of the old proverb a drowning man will clutch at a straw, recorded in various forms since the mid 16th century. Nowadays, you are more likely to come across 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 have got to do with straw. One possible explanation is that a strawberry's runners reminded people of straw strewn on floors. Or perhaps the name of the fruit refers to the small seeds scattered over its surface, which resemble tiny pieces of straw or chaff.