Forms: 1 (?) coltetræppe, calcatrippe, 3 calketrap, 3–5 calketrappe, 4 calketreppe, kalketrappe; 5 calletrappe, 5–6 caltrappe, 6 caltrope, -troppe, -throppe, calltrop, calteroope, 7 calthrap, 6 galtrope, -troppe, 7 galtrap, -trop, -throp(e, gall-trappe, -throp, 7–8 gall-trap); 7–9 calthrop, (5, 9 calthorp), 5– caltrap, 6– caltrop. [ME. calke-, kalketrappe, occurring in senses 1 and 3; OE. coltetræppe (? colcetreppe), calcatrippe, sense 3; corresp. to OF. kauketrape, cauchetrepe (caudetrepe) Godefroy, in sense 3, later chauche-trape, chauces-trappes, chausse-trape Littré (senses 1, 2, 3), which point back to an orig. caulke-, caulcetrape, cf. obs. It. calcatrippa, sense 3; these forms indicate a L. type *calcatrap(p)a or *calcitrap(p)a (the latter is in mod. botanical L.), app. f. calc-em heel + trappa trap, gin, snare (a. OHG. trapo trap, gin, noose); but perhaps in calcatrappa there was an association with calcāre to trample, tread. All the earliest examples are in sense 3; but it seems much more likely that the name should have been first used literally, and then transferred to plants. The mod. Eng. and Fr. sense ‘star-thistle’ is clearly transferred from 2. As a plant-name the word appeared (from med.L.) already in late OE.; sense 2 was probably adopted from French. Galltrap, frequent in 16–17th c., is an evident popular etymology, referring to the galling of horses’ feet.]
† 1. A trap, gin, or snare, to catch the feet of beasts, of horses or men in war, and the like. Obs. (Still in Fr. in sense ‘wolf-trap.’)
(Quots. c. 1300 and 1393, lead on to sense 2.)
a. 1300. Gloss. Neckam’s Treat., in Wright, Voc., 111. Pedicam sive descipulam, qua lupi capiantur, gloss. calketrap.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 6070. They haden … calketrappen maden ynowe, In weyes undur wode and bowe, Alisaundris men to aqwelle.
1340. Ayenb., 131. Þise wordle þet ne is bote … a forest uol of þyeues an of calketreppen and of grines.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXI. 296. With crokes and with Kalketrappes acloye we hem echone.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 59. Caltrap of yryn, fote hurtynge, hamus.
1850. Leitch, Müller’s Anc. Art, § 391, note 9. Psyche maltreated by Eros, singed as a butterfly … caught in a caltrop.
2. Mil. An iron ball armed with four sharp prongs or spikes, placed like the angles of a tetrahedron, so that when thrown on the ground it has always one spike projecting upwards: Used to obstruct the advance of cavalry, etc.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 266 b. They hydde pretely vnder the grounde caltroppys of yron to steke in horse or mennys fete.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., II. 57/1. The Irishmen had strawed all alongest the shore a great number of caltrops of iron, with sharpe pricks standing vp, to wound the Danes in the feet.
1581. Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 164. They did cast from them their Caltropes, which pricked their horses in the feete so sore, that down came the Chariots, horsemen and all.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xiv. (1623), 777/1. The murtherers to preuent pursuit, strewed galthrops behinde them.
1622. F. Markham, Bk. War, III. ix. 114. Foards are soon choakt up by Calthropes.
a. 1626. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgr., I. i. I think they ha’ strewed the High-wayes with caltraps, No horse dare’s pass ’em.
1659. Hammond, Paraphr. Matt. xi. 6. Sharp stakes or other instruments to wound or gall the passengers, which are known by the name of Gall-trappes.
1816. Scott, Antiq., iii. Ancient calthrops … dispersed by Bruce to lacerate the feet of the English chargers.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., 342. As if he had sat down on one of those small calthrops our grandfathers used to sow round in the grass when there were Indians about,—iron stars.
b. fig.
a. 1555. Ridley, Wks., 368. The devil’s galtropes that he casteth in our ways by some of his busyheaded younkers.
1607. Dekker, Wh. Babylon, Wks. 1873, II. 224. If euer I come backe Ile be a Calthrop To pricke my countries feet, that tread on me.
1876. J. Weiss, Wit, Hum. & Shaks., ii. 57. So he is a caltrop in men’s path, with a spike always uppermost to impale the over-hasty feet.
† c. attrib., as in caltrop-thistle, -grass.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, I. xiv. 18. Wee may call it in English, Round headed Caltrope Grasse.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 59. With Calthrap-thistles rough and keen.
3. Herb. Now usually Caltrops: A name given to various plants that catch or entangle the feet, or suggest the instrument described in 2. Applied in OE. to brambles or buckthorn, and apparently to Eryngo or Sea-holly; by 16th-c. herbalists to Star-thistle (Centaurea Calcitrapa) from its round head garnished with long radiant spines; also by translators to the spiny-seeded Tribulus terrestris (Land Caltrops) of Southern Europe. b. Water Caltrops, a name for Potamogeton densus and P. crispus, which tend to entangle swimmers; also from its resemblance to the instrument (sense 2) for the seed of Trapa natans of Southern Europe.
c. 1000. Ags. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 269. Ramnus, coltetræppe, þefanðorn. Ibid. (a. 1100), 298. Heraclea, calcatrippe. Ibid. (c. 1265), 557. Tribulus marinus, calketrappe, seaþistel.
a. 1387. Sinon. Barthol., in Anecd. Oxon., 37. Saliunca, wilde popi (marg. calketrappe).
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 58. Caltrap, herbe, saliunca.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, IV. lix. 521. This herbe is nowe called in … English, Starre Thistel, or Caltrop.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, II. ccxcviii. 825. Most do call the fruit of this caltrops castaneæ aquatiles [= F. châtaigne d’eau, fruit of Trapa natans].
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Achantique … Calthrop, or Star-thistle.
1671. Salmon, Syn. Med., III. xxii. 437. Tribulus Τριβολος Caltrop, abates inflamations.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v., Land Caltrop … the Seeds are inclosed in a Fruit that is furnish’d with several Prickles, and resembles the Cross of Malta.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. 80. Succeeds a prickly wood And burrs and caltrops.
1866. Treas. Bot., s.v. Trapa, The very singular four-horned fruits of the European species of Trapa (T. natans) … have been compared to the spiked iron instruments called caltrops … growing in water, it is commonly called the Water Caltrops.
