ramp: [18] A ramp is etymologically something you ‘climb’ up. The word was borrowed from French rampe, a derivative of the verb ramper ‘climb’, hence ‘slope’. This goes back to a Frankish *rampōn, and was borrowed into English in the 13th century as ramp. It now survives mainly in the form of its present participle, rampant [14], which preserves the sense ‘rearing up’. Rampage [18] may be a derivative.
ramp (n.1)
1778, "slope," from French rampe, back-formation from Old French verb ramper "to climb, scale, mount;" see ramp (v.). Meaning "road on or off a major highway" is from 1952, American English.
ramp (n.2)
"rude, boisterous girl or woman," mid-15c., perhaps from ramp (v.). Compare romp in Johnson's Dictionary (1755): "a rude, awkward, boisterous, untaught girl."
ramp (v.)
c. 1300, "to climb; to stand on the hind legs" (of animals), from Old French ramper "to climb, scale, mount" (12c., in Modern French "to creep, crawl"), perhaps from Frankish *rampon "to contract oneself" (compare Old High German rimpfan "to wrinkle," Old English hrimpan "to fold, wrinkle"), via notion of the bodily contraction involved in climbing [Klein], from Proto-Germanic *hrimp- "to contract oneself." Related: Ramped; ramping.
