sty
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /staɪ/
Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -aɪ
- Homophone: stye
Etymology 1
From Middle English sty, from Old English stī, stiġ (“sty, pen, a wooden enclosure; hall”, chiefly in compounds), from Proto-Germanic *stiją. Cognate with German Stiege (“wooden crate”), dialectal German Steige (“hen-coop”), Danish sti (“sty, enclosure for swine, sheep, hens, etc.”), Swedish stia (“sty for pigs, geese, etc.”), Norwegian sti (“flock of sheep”), Icelandic stía (“a kennel”).
Noun
sty (plural sties)
- A pen or enclosure for swine.
- (figurative) A messy, dirty or debauched place.
- 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], H[enry] Lawes, editor, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, OCLC 228715864; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, OCLC 1113942837:
- To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.
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Synonyms
- (enclosure for swine): pigpen, pigsty
- (messy or dirty place): hovel, pigsty
Translations
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Verb
sty (third-person singular simple present sties, present participle stying, simple past and past participle stied)
- To place in, or as if in, a sty
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene ii]:
- and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o' the island
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- To live in a sty, or any messy or dirty place
Etymology 2
From Middle English stien, stiȝen, stighen, from Old English stīgan (“to go; ascend, mount”), from Proto-West Germanic *stīgan, from Proto-Germanic *stīganą, from Proto-Indo-European *steygʰ-. Cognate with Dutch stijgen, German steigen, Danish stige, Norwegian Bokmål stige, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish stiga, Old Norse stíga.
Alternative forms
- stee, stie, stigh, stye
Verb
sty (third-person singular simple present sties, present participle stying, simple past and past participle stied)
- (obsolete) To ascend, rise up, climb. [9th–17th c.]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:
- The beast impatient of his smarting wound, / And of so fierce and forcible despight, / Thought with his wings to stye aboue the ground [...].
- 1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Muipotmos”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], OCLC 15537294:
- From this lower tract he dared to stie up to the clowdes.
- 1621, Richard Montague, Diatribae upon the first part of the late History of Tithes
- Led along, as some Creatures are, by the Noses, and voluntarily hood-winked; or like seeled Doves, sty up, you know not whither, nor how far.
- 1652, Edward Benlowes, Theophila, or Love's Sacrifice
- That she might sty to the seat of Beatifick Mirth.
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Derived terms
- styan
- stirrup
Related terms
- stile
Translations
Noun
sty (plural sties)
- (Britain, dialectal) A ladder.
Translations
Etymology 3
From Middle English styanye, mistaken as "sty on eye" yet composed of Old English stīġend (“sty”, literally “riser”), agent noun from stīgan (“to rise”) + Middle English yë (“eye”).
Alternative forms
- stye
Noun
sty (plural sties)
- (pathology) An inflammation of the eyelid.
Translations
Anagrams
- YTS
Middle English
Etymology 1
Inherited from Old English stiġ, stī, from Proto-West Germanic *stij, from Proto-Germanic *stiją.
Alternative forms
- stye, styȝe
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /stiː/
Noun
sty (plural styes)
- A pigsty (pen or set of pens for pigs)
- (rare) Any other crude dwelling or abode.
Descendants
- English: sty
References
- “stī, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-08.
Etymology 2
Inherited from Old English stīġ, from Proto-West Germanic *stīgu, from Proto-Germanic *stīgō.
Alternative forms
- sti, stie, stiȝe, stiȝhe, stiyhe, stye
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /stiː/
Noun
sty (plural styes or stiȝen)
- A path, track or street.
- (figurative) One's chosen pathway or choices in life.
- (figurative, rare) A short narrative.
References
- “stī(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-08.