Origin Story
Kidnap is a word built from two pieces of slang. Kid originally meant "a young goat," but in slang it came to mean "child," while nap was slang for "to snatch or grab" (a cousin of nab, meaning "to arrest"). Joined together, kidnap means literally "to snatch a child." In 17th-century England, children from poor families were secretly carried off and sold as plantation laborers in the American colonies, and the word kidnap arose precisely to name this crime. At first it applied only to children, but over time it came to cover the forcible seizing of adults as well.
How kid came to mean "child" is intriguing in itself. Originally "a young goat," kid grew into an affectionate term for a small, young person — much like a young animal — and so acquired the sense of "child." Nap, meanwhile, is a sibling word to nab, meaning "to arrest."
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Online Etymology Dictionarykidnap (v.): 1680s, compound of kid (n.) "child" + nap "snatch away," variant of nab; originally "to steal children to provide servants and laborers in the American colonies"
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Merriam-Webster Dictionarykidnap: probably back-formation from kidnapper, from kid + obsolete napper thief, from nap (variant of nab)
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Oxford English Dictionarykidnap: from kid "child" + nap "nab, snatch"; originally referring to the stealing of children for the colonies
Word Evolution
Words from the Same Root
Memory Hook
Remember kidnap = kid ("child") + nap ("to snatch"). The nap shares a root with nab, "to arrest."
""An old crime — the snatching of children — froze into a single word and stayed.""
