Thin, hollow tubes used for drinking beverages; also the dried stalks of grain plants like wheat or barley.
From Old English 'streow' (straw, chaff). The straw as drinking tube is much newer—glass straws appeared in the 1800s, but single-use plastic straws only became common in the 1960s.
Paper straws were actually invented first in 1888 by Marvin Stone, who patented them because paper wasn't dissolving into his mint julep—yet plastic straws only dominated after WWII when plastic became cheap, creating a 70-year-old 'tradition' we thought was ancient.
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