means a long band of color, material, or texture that runs distinct from what surrounds it — and by extension a mark of rank, type, or kind.

from From Middle Dutch or Middle Low German 'stripe,' meaning a streak or line, which entered English in the late medieval period as cloth and trade moved across the North Sea. It's a cousin of German 'Streifen' (a strip or streak) and shares deep Germanic roots with 'strip' itself — the long, narrow band. The military 'stripe' on a sleeve and the figurative 'of every stripe' both grew from that simple visual idea: a line that sets one thing apart from another.