ripe: [OE] Ripe is restricted to the West Germanic languages – it has relatives in German reif and Dutch rijp. Its antecedents are uncertain, but some have linked it with reap [OE], as if its underlying meaning is ‘ready for harvesting’. And reap itself may go back to an Indo- European base *rei- ‘tear, scratch’, and hence denote etymologically ‘strip’ the fruits, seeds, etc from plants. [ripe etymology, ripe origin, 英语词源]