sty

See also: stý

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /staɪ/
  • Rhymes: -aɪ

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 Steige (“hen-coop”), Danish sti (“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)

  1. A pen or enclosure for swine.
  2. (figuratively) A messy, dirty or debauched place.
    • Milton
      To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.
Synonyms
Translations

Verb

sty (third-person singular simple present sties, present participle stying, simple past and past participle stied)

  1. To place in, or as if in, a sty.

and here you sty me/ In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me/ The rest o' the island. (The Tempest, Act I, Scene II)

  1. To live in a sty, or any messy or dirty place.

Etymology 2

From Middle English stien, stiȝen, from Old English stīġan (“to go; ascend, mount”), from Proto-Germanic *stīganą, from Proto-Indo-European *steygʰ-. Cognate with Dutch stijgen, German steigen, Norwegian Bokmål stige, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish stiga, Old Norse stíga.

Alternative forms

Verb

sty (third-person singular simple present sties, present participle stying, simple past and past participle stied)

  1. (obsolete) To ascend, rise up, climb. [9th-17th c.]
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.xi:
      The beast impatient of his smarting wound, / And of so fierce and forcible despight, / Thought with his wings to stye aboue the ground [...].
    • Spenser (1590)
      From this lower tract he dared to sty up to the clouds.
    • Mountagu Diatribe (1621)
      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.
    • Benlowes (1652)
      That she might sty to the seat of Beatifick Mirth.
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

sty (plural sties)

  1. (Britain, dialectal) A ladder.
Translations

Etymology 3

Probably a back-formation from styany, mistaken for "sty-on-eye" but correctly from Middle English styany, composed of styan ("sty"; from Old English stīġende, present participle of stīgan (“to rise”)) + y (“eye”).

Alternative forms

Noun

sty (plural sties)

  1. (medicine) An inflammation of the eyelid.
Translations

Anagrams

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English stiġ, stī, from Proto-Germanic *stiją.

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /stiː/

Noun

sty (plural styes)

  1. A pigsty (pen or set of pens for pigs)
  2. (rare) Any other crude dwelling or abode.
Descendants
References

Etymology 2

From Old English stīġ, from Proto-Germanic *stīgō.

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /stiː/

Noun

sty (plural styes or stiȝen)

  1. A path, track or street.
  2. (figuratively) One's chosen pathway or choices in life.
  3. (figuratively, rare) A short narrative.
References
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