From Middle Dutch/Low German (1580s), from Proto-Indo-European '*ghrebh-' ("to seize, reach"), from PIE *ghrebh- ("to seize, reach").
To seize suddenly and roughly; to take hold of something with a quick motion.
From Middle Dutch or Middle Low German 'grabben' (to seize, to grab), from Proto-Germanic '*grab-' (to seize, to grasp), related to Proto-Germanic '*grīpaną' (to grip, seize), from PIE root *ghrebh- (to seize, reach). The word entered English surprisingly late for such a basic action — Shakespeare's contemporaries were the first generation to 'grab' things. Before that, English used 'gripe,' 'grasp,' 'clutch,' or 'snatch.' The 'gr-' cluster at the beginning is part of a broad sound-symbolic pattern in Germanic languages where 'gr-' words often involve grasping: grip, gripe, grasp, grapple, grope. Key
English has an extraordinary cluster of 'gr-' words meaning to seize: grab, grip, gripe, grasp, grapple, grope. Linguists believe this is 'phonesthesia' — a sound-meaning association where the 'gr-' onset in Germanic languages became instinctively linked to grasping motions, reinforcing new coinages along the same pattern.