stot

stot

See also: Stot and stöt

English

Etymology 1

From Old English stot, stotte (“a hack, jade, or worthless horse”), in turn from Old Norse stútr. Compare Swedish stut (“a bull”), Danish stud (“an ox”). Confer stoat.

Noun

stot (plural stots)

1. (obsolete) An inferior horse.
2. An ox or bull.
3. (regional) A heifer.

Etymology 2

Likely derived from Middle Dutch stoten (“to push”) or Middle Low German stôten, from Old Saxon stōtan, from Proto-West Germanic *stautan, from Proto-Germanic *stautaną (“to push, jolt, bump”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewd-, from *(s)tew- (“to push, hit”).

Also compare Middle English steten (“to thrust, strike, push, knock down”), Old Norse stauta and steyta (whence Danish støde), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (stautan), Old Saxon stotan.

Alternative forms

• stott

Noun

stot (plural stots)

1. (Scotland, Northern England) A bounce or rebound
   • 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate 2012, p. 148:

     Instead of dropping the golden cones safely into his bag he let them dribble out of his hands so that, in the expectancy before the violence of the storm, the tiny stots from one transfigured branch to another could be clearly heard.

2. (zoology, of quadrupeds) A leap using all four legs at once.

Verb

stot (third-person singular simple present stots, present participle stotting or stottin, simple past and past participle stotted)

1. (intransitive, Scotland and Northern England) To bounce, rebound or ricochet.
   • 1996, Alasdair Gray, ‘Lack of Money’, Canongate 2012 (Every Short Story 1951-2012), p. 285:

     ‘I've plenty of money in my bank – and I have my cheque book here – could one of you cash a cheque for five pounds? – I promise it won't stot.’

2. (transitive, Scotland and Northern England) To make bounce, rebound or ricochet.
3. (transitive, Scotland and Northern England) To stumble.
4. (intransitive, zoology, of quadrupeds) To leap using all four legs at once.

   Synonym: pronk

   • 1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 14:

     This vigorous and conspicuous leaping in front of a predator is analogous to bird alarm calls, in that it seems to warn companions of danger while apparently calling the predator’s attention to the stotter himself. We have a responsibility to explain stotting Tommies and all similar phenomena, and this is something I am going to face in later chapters.

5. (obsolete) To strike, push, shove. [–16th c.]

Derived terms

• stotter
• stottie

Further reading

• stotting on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Frank Graham (1987) The New Geordie Dictionary, →ISBN
• A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press, →ISBN
• stot in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• OED 2nd edition 1989
• Middle English Dictionary Entry for "steten"
• “stot”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• obtund in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• Den Danske Ordbog - støde

Anagrams

• TSTO, tost, tots

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Scots

Alternative forms

• stotte

Etymology

Likely derived from Middle Dutch stoten. Also compare Old Norse stauta. Related to Dutch stoten (“to push; to bump”), German stoßen (“to push; to bump; to jolt; to kick; to thrust”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stɔt/

Verb

stot (third-person singular simple present stots, present participle stottin, simple past stottit, past participle stottit)

1. To bounce, rebound, ricochet.

Noun

stot (plural stots)

1. A bounce, rebound.

References

• “stot” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.