Can anybody tell me about the connection, if any, between the words nab and grab .
It struck me that the a/b ending is unusual.
Do they have a common origin?
Yeah – aside from cab, crab, dab, drab, gab, jab, scarab, stab, (swab), and tab, and, oh, shortenings like lab and fab – and, of course, Queen Mab – you hardly ever see it.
samclem
September 7, 2007, 8:56pm
3
[Origin uncertain; perh. variant of NAP v.3]
1. trans. a. To catch (a criminal, etc.) and take into custody; to apprehend, arrest; to imprison.
1686 F. SPENCE tr. A. Varillas Secret Hist. House Medicis 407 Verselli was nabb’d playing at dice.
At Nap ,they offer the etymology as
[Origin uncertain. Perh. the reflex of a borrowing < early Scandinavian (cf. Norwegian nappe to tug, snatch, arrest, Old Swedish nappa to pinch, snap, pick (Swedish nappa to snap, snatch), Danish nappe to snatch, nip, steal) < the Germanic base of NIEVE n.; cf. also Orkney and Shetland Scots nap, napp to snap, esp. of a horse < the (unattested) Norn reflex of the early Scandinavian word represented by the forms listed above. Perh. cf. also Middle Dutch (rare) nappen to prick, bite. Cf. earlier NAPING a., and slightly earlier NAPPER n.2
1. trans. To seize, catch; to arrest; to steal. Cf. NAB v.2 1, 2.
In quot. 1995 with punning allusion to kidnap.
1665 R. HEAD Eng. Rogue I. xxvi. 4 My Chester-Landlord…espy’d me, and…presently fetcht two Officers, and coming out into the street napt me.
Grab also goes back to this time period, but appears to have nothing in common with nab