英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

status [status 词源字典]: status: see state
[status etymology, status origin, 英语词源]
statute: statute: see statue
stay: stay: English has three distinct words stay, two of them ultimately from the same source. Stay ‘stop’ [15] comes from estai-, the present stem of Old French ester ‘stand, stop’. This in turn went back to Latin stāre ‘stand’ (source of English state, statue, etc). Staid [16] originated as the past participle of stay. Stay ‘strong rope’ [OE] comes from a prehistoric Germanic *staga-. This was derived from a base *stagh-, *stakh- ‘be firm’, which also produced English steel and (by borrowing) Old French estayer ‘support’ (source of English stay ‘support’ [16]).
=> staid, stand, statue; steel
stead: stead: [OE] Stead ‘place’ comes from a prehistoric Germanic *stadiz, which also produced German statt ‘place’ and stadt ‘town’. This in turn went back to Indo-European *stətís, a derivative of the base *stə -, *stā- ‘stand’, which also produced English stand and Latin stāre ‘stand’ (source of English state, statue, etc). The expression in the stead of ‘in place of’, and its lexicalized form instead, originated in the 13th century, modelled on Old French en lieu de.
=> stand, state, statue, steady
steady: steady: [16] Steady was derived from stead ‘place’, probably on the model of Middle Low German stēdig ‘stable’. This in turn went back to a prehistoric Germanic *stadigaz, a product of the same base as produced English stead. Its etymological meaning is ‘fixed in one place’.
=> stead
steal: steal: [OE] Steal comes from a prehistoric Germanic base *stel-. This also produced German stehlen, Dutch stelen, Swedish stjäla, and Danish stjæle, but its ultimate ancestry is unknown. The derived stealth [13] originally meant ‘theft’ (‘I know my lord hath spent of Timon’s wealth, and now ingratitude makes it worse than stealth’, Shakespeare, Timon of Athens 1607), but this has gradually been ousted by the metaphorical ‘furtiveness’. Stalk ‘follow furtively’ comes from the same Germanic base.
=> stalk, stealth
steam: steam: [OE] Steam comes from a prehistoric Germanic *staumaz, a word of uncertain origin which also produced Dutch stoom. It originally denoted any ‘vapour given off by something hot’; the specific modern sense ‘vapour from boiling water’ emerged in the 15th century.
steed: steed: see stud
steel: steel: [OE] Steel is etymologically a ‘firm’ substance. The word goes back to a prehistoric West Germanic *stakhlam, which was derived from the Germanic base *stakh-, *stagh- ‘be firm’ (source also of English stay ‘rope, support’). It has Germanic relatives in German stahl and Dutch staal.
=> stay
steep: steep: English has two words steep. The adjective, ‘precipitous’ [OE], originally meant ‘very high’. It came from the prehistoric Germanic base *staup-, *stūp-, which also produced English steeple [OE] (etymologically a ‘high’ tower) and stoop [OE]. The verb steep ‘soak’ [14] probably came via an unrecorded Old English *stīepan from prehistoric Germanic *staupjan. This was formed from the base *staup-, *stup-, which also produced English stoup ‘water vessel’ [14] (a borrowing from Old Norse).
=> steeple, stoop, stoup
steer: steer: Steer ‘control direction’ [OE] and steer ‘young ox’ [OE] are quite unrelated. The latter comes from a prehistoric Germanic *(s)teuraz, which also produced German and Dutch stier, Swedish tjur, and Danish tyr ‘bull’. It was descended from a base denoting ‘strength’ or ‘sturdiness’ (source also of Sanskrit somethingūra- ‘strong, thick’), and may be related to Latin taurus ‘bull’. Steer ‘control direction’ comes from a prehistoric Germanic *steurjan, source also of German steuern, Dutch stieren, Swedish styra, and Danish styre.

This in turn was derived from the noun *steurō ‘steering’, which also lies behind English stern and the first syllable of starboard.
=> starboard, stern
stem: stem: The stem [OE] of a tree is etymologically the upright part, the part that ‘stands’ up. The word comes from prehistoric Germanic *stamniz, a derivative of the base *sta- ‘stand’ (which also produced English stand). The application to the ‘front of a vessel’ (as in from stem to stern) comes from the notion of an ‘upright beam’ at the prow (and originally the stern also) of a boat, which dates back to the Anglo-Saxon period. Stem ‘stop’ [13] was borrowed from Old Norse stemma, a descendant of prehistoric Germanic *stamjan.

This was formed from the base *stam- ‘stop, check’, which also produced English stammer and stumble.
=> stand, statue; stammer, stumble
stench: stench: see stink
stencil: stencil: [14] Stencil was originally a verb, meaning ‘decorate with bright colours’. It came from Old French estenceler ‘cause to sparkle’, a derivative of estencele ‘spark’. This was descended from Vulgar Latin *stincilla, an alteration of Latin scintilla ‘spark’ (source of English scintilla ‘jot’ [17] and scintillate [17]). There are no records of this original verb beyond the 15th century, and the noun stencil ‘sheet with cut-out designs’ did not appear until the early 18th century, but despite the long gap, they are generally assumed to be the same word.
=> scintillate, tinsel
stentorian: stentorian: [17] Stentor was a Greek warrior in the Trojan war, whose abnormally loud voice earned him the job of herald (his name was derived from the Greek verb sténein ‘groan, moan’). Stentorian, based on late Latin stentoreus or Greek stentóreios, commemorates his carrying tones.
step: step: [OE] Step, together with its relatives German stapfen and Dutch steppen, comes from a prehistoric West Germanic base *stap- ‘tread’ (a nasalized version of which produced English stamp). (Russian step, source of English steppe [17], is not related.) The prefix step- [OE], as in stepdaughter, stepfather, etc, originated in a word meaning ‘orphan’. It is related to Old High German stiufen ‘bereave’.
=> stamp
stereo: stereo: [19] Greek stereós meant ‘solid’. The earliest English compound noun formed from it was stereometry [16], a mathematical term denoting the measurement of solid or threedimensional objects. This was followed by stereographic [17], stereotype [18] (coined in French and originally used for a ‘solid’ printing block; the metaphorical ‘unvaried or conventional image’ emerged in the middle of the 19th century), stereoscope [19] (a viewer for producing ‘solid’ or three-dimensional images), and stereophonic ‘producing three-dimensional sound’ [20]. Stereo was used in the 19th century as an abbreviation for stereotype and stereoscopic; its use for stereophonic dates from the early 1950s.
=> stare, stork
sterile: sterile: [16] Sterile is a word of ancient ancestry, which goes right back to the prehistoric Indo- European base *ster- (source also of Greek stériphos and Gothic stairō ‘infertile’). The Latin descendant of the base was sterilis, acquired by English via French stérile.
sterling: sterling: [13] Sterling ‘British money’ originated as a term for an English silver penny from the 13th to the 15th centuries. The first ones struck had the design of a small star on them – hence the name sterling (and its now defunct variant starling), literally ‘little star’. Two hundred and forty of such coins formed a unit of weight, known as a pound of sterlings. The earliest use of sterling as a general term for ‘English currency’ dates from the mid 16th century.
=> star
stern: stern: English has two distinct words stern. The older, the adjective ‘severe’ [OE], comes from a prehistoric Germanic *sternjaz, which was probably derived from the base *ster-, *star- ‘be rigid’ (source also of English starch, stare, starve, etc). Stern ‘rear of a vessel’ [13] is etymologically the ‘steering’ end of a ship. The word was probably borrowed from Old Norse stjórn ‘steering’, a derivative of the same base as produced stýra ‘steer’ (source of English steer).
=> starch, stare, starve, stereo, stork; steer