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strive [strive 词源字典]: strive: [13] Strive was borrowed from Old French estriver ‘quarrel, strive’. It is not certain where this came from, although it has been suggested that it was acquired from Old High German strīt ‘contention’, a relative of English stride. Strife [13] comes from the associated Old French noun estrif.
=> strife[strive etymology, strive origin, 英语词源]
stroke: stroke: The verb stroke [OE] and the noun stroke [13] are different words, but they come ultimately from the same source – the prehistoric Germanic base *strīk-, *straik- ‘touch lightly’ (from which English also gets streak and strike). The verb has stayed very close semantically to its source, whereas the noun has followed the same path as its corresponding verb strike.
=> streak, strike
strong: strong: [OE] Strong comes from a prehistoric Germanic *stranggaz (its immediate Germanic siblings have now died out, but German streng ‘severe’ is quite closely related). It went back ultimately to a base denoting ‘stiffness’ or ‘tautness’, which also produced English string.
=> string
strontium: strontium: [19] The element strontium gets its name from the Strontian area of the Highland region of Scotland, which contains lead mines in which strontium was first discovered. Indeed, it was originally called strontian; the latinized version strontium was introduced by the chemist Sir Humphry Davy in 1808.
strop: strop: [OE] Strop has now narrowed down in meaning to the specialized ‘strip of leather for sharpening a razor’, but it used to be a much more general term for a leather band or loop. It goes back to a prehistoric West Germanic word that was probably an adoption of Latin stroppus ‘strap, band’. That in turn may well have come from Greek strophos ‘twisted band’, from strephein ‘turn’.

Old French had estrope from the same West Germanic source, and that probably reinforced the English word in the 14th century. Scottish pronunciation turned strop into strap [17], and that has now inherited most of the general functions of strop in English at large. As for stroppy ‘bad-tempered and uncooperative’, first recorded in 1951, no convincing link with strop ‘leather strip’ has ever been established (strop ‘fit of stroppiness’ is a back-formation from stroppy).

One suggestion is that it may be a radically stripped-down version of obstreperous.
structure: structure: [15] Structure comes via Old French structure from Latin structūra, a noun derived from the past participle of struere ‘build’. Other English words from the same source are construct, construe, destroy, destruction, instruct, and obstruct [17].
=> construct, construe, destroy, destruction, instruct, obstruct, strain
struthious: struthious: see ostrich
stud: stud: Stud ‘place where horses are bred’ and stud ‘nail’ [OE] are different words. The former (like stable and stall) denotes etymologically a place where animals ‘stand’, in this case for breeding purposes. It comes from a prehistoric Germanic *stōtham, a derivative of the base *sta-, *stō- ‘stand’ (source also of English stand, and of steed [OE], which originally denoted a ‘male horse used for breeding’).

The use of the word for a ‘man who is highly active and proficient sexually’ dates from the end of the 19th century. The ancestry of stud ‘nail’ is not altogether clear, although it appears to be related to German stützen ‘support’. It originally meant ‘post, support’, a sense preserved in the building term stud ‘upright post to which boards are fixed’, and ‘nail’ (presumed to represent the same word) did not emerge until the 15th century.
=> stand, steed
study: study: [13] Study comes via Old French estudie from Latin studium ‘eagerness, intense application’, hence ‘application to learning’ (English studio [19] comes from the same ultimate source, only via Italian). Studium in turn was derived from the verb studēre ‘be eager, study’ (source of English student [15]). This probably went back ultimately to the Indo- European base *steud-, *teud- ‘hit’, which also produced Latin tundere ‘hit’ (source of English contusion and obtuse) and German stossen ‘shove, hit’ – the underlying notion of study thus being the ‘application of extreme effort’.
=> contusion, obtuse, student, studio
stuff: stuff: [14] Stuff is ultimately the same word as stop. It comes via Old French estoffer and prehistoric Germanic *stopfōn, earlier *stoppōn (source of English stop), from late Latin stuppāre ‘plug, stop up’. This originally denoted literally ‘stop up a hole with a plug of coarse fibres’, for it was derived from Latin stuppa ‘coarse fibres, tow’, a borrowing from Greek stúppē. The noun stuff comes from Old French estoffe ‘provisions’, a derivative of estoffer.
=> stop
stumble: stumble: [14] Stumble was probably borrowed from an unrecorded Old Norse *stumla. This would have come, along with its first cousin stumra ‘trip’, from a prehistoric Germanic base *stum-, *stam- ‘check, impede’, which also produced English stammer and stem ‘halt, check’.
=> stammer, stem
stun: stun: [13] Stun is virtually the same word as astonish and astound, and like them it denotes etymologically ‘leave thunderstruck’. It comes via Anglo-Norman estuner from Vulgar Latin *extonāre ‘stupefy’. This was a compound verb, formed from the Latin intensive prefix ex- and tonāre ‘thunder’ (a relative of English thunder) and based on the model of Latin attonāre ‘stupefy’, similarly formed from tonāre but with the prefix ad-. The variant *astoner produced English astonish and astound.
=> astonish, astound, thunder
stupid: stupid: [16] As the related stupefy [16] and stupor [17] still do, stupid originally denoted ‘mental numbness’; ‘lack of intelligence’ is a secondary development. It comes via Old French stupide from Latin stupidus, a derivative of stupēre ‘be stunned or numbed with shock’. This was descended from an Indo-European base *stup- or *tup- ‘hit’, which also produced Greek tüptein ‘hit’ and Sanskrit tup- ‘harm, hurt’.
=> stupefy, stupor
sturdy: sturdy: [13] Someone who is sturdy is etymologically ‘as drunk as a thrush’ – the ancient Roman equivalent to ‘pissed as a newt’. The word comes from Old French estourdi ‘stunned, dazed, violent’, the past participle of estourdir. This went back to a Vulgar Latin *exturdīre ‘be dazed like a drunken thrush’, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix ex- and Latin turdus ‘thrush’ (the use of the thrush as a symbol of drunkenness perhaps arose from observations of the birds staggering around after feasting on stolen fermenting wine grapes).

The metaphorical Old French sense ‘violent, reckless’ passed over into English, and by the 14th century had evolved into ‘strong, vigorous, robust’.
sty: sty: English has two distinct words sty. The ‘pig enclosure’ [OE] is not recorded for certain as an independent word before the 13th century, but it occurs in compounds in Old English, and it is probably the same word as Old English stig ‘hall’ (source of English steward). It goes back ultimately to a prehistoric Germanic *stijam. The sty on one’s eye [17] denotes etymologically a ‘swelling’.

It comes from the now defunct styany ‘sty’. This was misinterpreted as ‘sty-oneye’, but in fact it was a compound formed from Middle English styan ‘swelling’ (a descendant of the present participle of Old English stīgan ‘rise’, which is related to modern English stair and stirrup) and eye.
=> steward; eye, stair, stirrup
style: style: [13] Style comes via Old French stile from Latin stilus, which denoted a ‘pointed writing instrument’. It came to be used metaphorically for ‘something written’, and hence for ‘manner of writing’. The spelling with y instead of i arose from the misapprehension that the word was of Greek origin. It also invaded stylus [18], which was acquired directly from Latin.
=> stimulate, stylus
suave: suave: see persuade
subdue: subdue: [14] Subdue denotes etymologically ‘lead away’. It came via Anglo-Norman *subduer from Latin subdūcere ‘lead away, withdraw’, a compound verb formed from the prefix sub- ‘from under, away’ and dūcere ‘lead’ (source of English duct, duke, etc). The sense ‘conquer, subjugate, suppress’ arose through association with the long defunct and quite unrelated English subdit ‘subject’, which came from subditus, the past participle of Latin subdere ‘bring under, subjugate’.
=> duct, duke
subject: subject: [14] To subject something is etymologically to ‘throw it under’. The verb comes via Old French subjecter from Latin sujectāre, which was formed from subjectus, the past participle of Latin subicere ‘bring down’. This in turn was a compound verb formed from the prefix sub- ‘under’ and jacere ‘throw’ (source also of English abject [15], adjacent, adjective, conjecture, dejected [15], inject [17], jet, jettison, jetty, reject [15], etc).

The noun subject, which also came from Latin subjectus, originally denoted a person ‘subjected’ to the control of another (as in ‘the Queen’s subjects’). The most salient modern sense, ‘topic’, comes ultimately from the notion of ‘that which is operated on by something else’.
=> abject, adjacent, adjective, conjecture, dejected, inject, jet, jettison, jetty, object, reject
subjugate: subjugate: see yoke