What is the origin of “Quasselstrippe”?

Question

I'd like to know the origin of the word Quasselstrippe.

Is it the cord (Strippe) on the back of puppets on which you pull and they start to talk (quasseln)? Or is the origin something completely different?

Answer 1

The composite noun "Quasselstrippe" is built from

• quasseln (to jabber):

  Reached German colloquial in 1900 from Berlin. It was built as an iteration from Low German "quāsen" (fressen, übermäßig essen, plaudern, schwatzen) (18. century), where the initial was changed from the Middle Low German "dwāsen" (Unsinn reden, irre reden, toll sein). ^{translated from DWDS}

• Strippe (cord)

Therefore "Quasselstrippe" initially was used for a "device on a cord to talk", i.e. a telephone (cf. http://www.dwds.de/?qu=Quasselstrippe). Later, and today when phones do not have a cord anymore, the meaning changed to describe a person who is talking too much.

Answer 2

As far as I know "Quasselstrippe" was a synonym for "telephone".
Old telephones had a chord which can be translated to "Kabel". And "Strippe" is a synonym for "Kabel".
But nowadays it is used for people who talk a lot and who can't stop talking.