An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/strecken

by Friedrich Kluge

strecken, vb., ‘to stretch, extend,’ from MidHG. stręcken, OHG. stręcchen, wk. vb., ‘to straighten, make tense, extend, stretch’; corresponds to Du. strekken, AS. stręččęan, E. to stretch. The corresponding adj. strack (comp. also OHG. stracchên, ‘to be extended’), points to a Teut. root strak (for srak, a variant of rak in recken?), which is perhaps connected with the root of Strang and strenge. It is doubtful whether the HG. cognates are borrowed from Ital. straccare, ‘to exhaust, fatigue.’