An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Haspe

by Friedrich Kluge

Haspe, Häspe, f., ‘hasp, clamp, hinge,’ from MidHG. haspe, hespe, f., ‘hinge of a door; windle’ (with the variant hispe, f., ‘clasp’), OHG. haspa, ‘a reel of yarn’; comp. OIc. hespa, f., ‘hank, skein of wool; bolt of a door’; E. hasp, MidE. haspe, ‘bolt, wollen yarn,’ so too AS. hœsp, hœps, heps, f. The double sense ‘door bolt, door look, and hasp,’ seems OTeut.; as a technical term in weaving, this word, like Rocken, found its way into Rom. (Ital. aspo, OFr. hasple); see also Kunkel. Whether the two meanings have been developed from one, or whether two distinct words have been combined, is uncertain, since we have no etymological data.