step-

step-

See also: step, štep, stęp, and STEP

English

Etymology

From Middle English step-, from Old English stēop- (“deprived of a relative, step-”, prefix), from Proto-West Germanic *steupa-, from Proto-Germanic *steupa- (“orphaned, step-”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp- (“to push, strike”).

Cognate with Scots step- (“step-”), West Frisian stiep- (“step-”), Dutch stief- (“step-”), Low German steef- (“step-”), German stief- (“step-”), Swedish styv- (“step-”), Icelandic stjúp- (“step-”). Related to Old English stīepan (“to deprive, bereave”). Not, however, related to the familiar English noun or verb step.

Prefix

step-

1. A prefix used before father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, child, and so forth, to indicate that the person being identified is not a blood relative but is related through the marriage of a parent.

Derived terms

English terms prefixed with step-

Translations

prefix used to indicate that the person being identified is not a blood relative

Armenian: խորթ (hy) (xortʿ) Azerbaijani: ögey Bashkir: үгәй (ügäy) Catalan: -astre (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 后 (zh), 表 (zh) Crimean Tatar: ögey Danish: sted- Dutch: stief- (e.g. stiefdochter, stiefmoeder, stiefvader, stiefzoon) Faroese: stjúk- Finnish: -puoli (fi) (e.g. velipuoli) French: beau- (fr), bel-, belle- (fr) German: stief- (de) Hebrew: חורג‎ (he) m (chorég), חורגת‎ f (choréget) Hindi: सौतेला (hi) (sautelā), सौतेली (sautelī) Icelandic: stjúp- Ido: stif-, stifa (io) Indonesian: tiri (id) Irish: leas- Italian: -astro (it) m, astra f, -astra f Javanese: kuwalon (jv) Kazakh: өгей (ögei) Maori: whakaangi Norwegian: Bokmål: ste- Nynorsk: ste- Old Norse: stjúp- Portuguese: -asto m, -asta f Romanian: vitreg (ro) Russian: (no prefix exists, there are special words), сво́дный (ru) (svódnyj) (for siblings) Spanish: -astro m, -astra f Swahili: kambo Swedish: styv- (sv) Tatar: үги (tt) (ügi) Turkish: üvey (tr) Turkmen: öweý Yiddish: שטיפֿ־‎ (shtif-)

References

• step- in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

• EPTs, ESTP, PETs, Pest, Sept, Sept., TPEs, Teps, pest, pets, sept, sept-, spet

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Middle English

Alternative forms

• stip-, styp-, ste-, steppe-, stappe-, steop-

Etymology

From Old English stēop- (“deprived of a relative, step-”, prefix), from Proto-West Germanic *steupa-, from Proto-Germanic *steupa- (“orphaned, step-”).

The short vowel is due to regular shortening of long vowels before consonant clusters in Early Middle English. All of the words that stēop- was prefixed to in Old English were consonant-initial, so shortening occurred exceptionlessly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɛp-/

Prefix

step-

1. step- (related through the marriage of a parent)

Derived terms

Middle English terms prefixed with step-

Descendants

• English: step-
• Scots: step-, stap-

References

• “step-, combining element”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.