The story
- Proto-Indo-European · derived from*h₁reyb-“to snatch”
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*rīpaną
- Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*rīpan
- Old English · inherited fromrēopan
- Middle English · inherited fromrepen
- English todayreap
From Middle English repen, from Old English rēopan, rēpan, variants of Old English rīpan (“to reap”), from Proto-West Germanic *rīpan, from Proto-Germanic *rīpaną (compare West Frisian repe, Norwegian ripa (“to score, scratch”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyb- (“to snatch”).
Words from the same roots
Proto-Indo-European*h₁reyb- all →
ripe
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.