Etymology Dictionary

RAMP,  to leap or bound, properly, to climb, scramble, rear.  (F.,—Teut.)   'Ramp, to rove, frisk or jump about, to play gambols or wanton tricks;' Phillips, ed. 1706; and in Palsgrave.   Not much used, except in the deriv. rampant.   M.E. rampen, used by Chaucer in the sense 'to rage, be furious with anger;' C. T. 13910; cf. mod. E. romp, which is the same word.   Gower uses rampend, rearing, said of a dragon, in the same way as the F. pp. rampant; C. A. iii. 74, l. 22.   Cf. Prick of Conscience, 2225.—F. ramper, 'to creep, run, crawl, or traile itself along the ground; also, to climb;' Cot.   β. From a Teut. source.   Cf. Bavarian rampfen, explained by Schmeller, ii. 96, by the G. raffen, to snatch.   Scheler, following Diez, says that the old sense of F. ramper was to clamber, preserved in mod. F. rampe, a flight of steps; and that it is allied to Ital. rampa, a claw, gripe, rampare, to claw, and rampo, a grappling-iron.   γ. The Ital. rampare (appearing in Prov. in the form rapar) is, in fact, a nasalised form of rappare, only used in the comp. arrappare, to snatch up, carry off, seize upon; and the base is Teut. RAP, to be in haste, found in Low G. rappen, to snatch hastily (Bremen Wörterbuch), Dan. rappe, to hasten, make haste, Dan. rap, quick, Swed. rappa, to snatch, rapp, brisk, G. raffen, to snatch.   δ. Probably an initial h has been lost; cf. Icel. harpaðr, hurry, hrapa, to rush headlong, to hurry.   See Rap (2).   Der. ramp-ant, chiefly used of a lion rampant, as in Skelton, Against the Scottes, 135, from F. rampant, pres. part. of ramper; hence rampant-ly, rampanc-y.