"S" Word Origins

stanza

Italian

From Italian 'stanza', meaning 'room' or 'stopping place', from the sense of each group of lines being a room within the poem.

stapes

Origin

Borrowed from Medieval Latin stapēs (“stirrup”). Doublet of step.

staph

Greek

A shortened, everyday form of "staphylococcus," itself from Greek staphylē ("bunch of grapes," describing how the bacteria cluster together under a microscope) + kokkos ("berry").

staphylococcus

Origin

Borrowed from translingual Staphylococcus. By surface analysis, staphylo- + -coccus.

staple

Old French

From Old French estaple ("market" or "trading post"), from a Germanic root meaning "post" or "pillar" — the same root that gives us "staff." The fastener sense developed later from the same word for a bent metal post or clasp.

stapler

Origin

Formed from the verb "staple" plus the agent suffix "-er," describing the tool that does the stapling.

Stapleton

Old English

From Old English stapol (“post, pillar”) + tūn (“enclsoure; settlement, town”).

star

Latin

From Old English steorra, going back through Proto-Germanic to an ancient Indo-European root also behind Latin stella and Greek astēr — making "star" a distant cousin of words like "astronomy" and "disaster."

Starbase

Origin

A blend of "star" and "base," coined for science-fiction settings and later reused as the name of a real rocket-launch site in Texas.

starboard

Old English

From Old English stēorbord, meaning "steering side" — ancient ships were steered using an oar mounted on the right side, which is why that side became known as starboard.

Starbuck

Origin

A mutation of the placename Starbeck (“an area in North Yorkshire, England”).

Starbucks

Origin

Named after Starbuck, the first mate in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick, itself inspired by the real-life Starbuck family, a prominent whaling family from Nantucket, Massachusetts.

starburst

Origin

A straightforward compound of "star" + "burst," describing something that bursts outward in a star-like pattern.

starch

Old English

From an Old English word meaning "stiffness" or "strength," related to the word "stark." The food sense and the laundry sense both trace back to the same idea of something that makes things rigid.

stardate

Origin

A blend of "star" and "date," invented for the Star Trek franchise to give a futuristic feel to in-universe timestamps.

stardom

Origin

Formed from "star" (a famous performer) plus the suffix "-dom," which denotes a state or condition, as in "freedom" or "kingdom."

stardust

Origin

A compound of "star" + "dust," first used literally for cosmic particles and later borrowed figuratively for a magical, dazzling quality.

stare

Old English

From Old English starian ("to stare, to be fixed or rigid"), related to the word "stark" — both come from a root meaning stiff or fixed.

Starfighter

Origin · 1950

From "star" plus "fighter," first as the name of a real 1950s jet, later borrowed by science fiction for space-combat craft.

starfish

Origin

A compound of "star" + "fish," describing its shape, even though it is not a true fish but an echinoderm related to sea urchins.

starfleet

Origin

A compound of "star" + "fleet," popularized by the Star Trek franchise as the name of its fictional space-faring organization.

stargate

Origin · 1994

A compound of "star" + "gate," popularized by the 1994 science fiction film Stargate and its spin-off television shows.

stargaze

Origin

From star + gaze.

stargazer

Origin

A compound of "star" + "gazer" (one who gazes), literally "one who gazes at stars."

stark

Old English

From Old English stearc ("stiff, strong, severe"), from a Germanic root meaning "rigid." The phrase "stark naked" actually began as a play on "start naked" (from Middle English stert, "tail"), later reshaped by influence of "stark" meaning "utterly."

starken

Origin

From Middle English starkenen (“to grow strong”), equivalent to stark + -en.

starkers

Origin

* "naked": British slang, from 1923, combining (like a popular etymology) two meanings of stark (“strong, utterly; barren”) with stark naked, which is from Old English steort (“tail”), referring to the tail-end (as in butt-naked). * "crazy": stark (“shortening of stark raving mad”) + -ers

Starla

Origin

Possibly derived from the word star.

starlet

Origin

From "star" plus the diminutive suffix "-let" (as in "booklet" or "piglet"), literally meaning "a small star."

starlight

Origin

A simple compound of "star" + "light."

starling

Old English

From Old English stærling, combining stær ("starling") with the diminutive suffix "-ling," so it originally meant something like "little starling."

starr

Late Latin

From Late Latin starrum, borrowed from Hebrew shetar, meaning a legal deed or document.

starred

Origin

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

starry

Middle English

From Middle English sterry, built from star plus the adjective ending -y.

starship

Origin

A straightforward compound of star and ship, coined for science fiction.

start

Old English

From Old English styrtan, "to leap up suddenly," which is also behind the related word startle.

starter

Origin

From start + -er.

startle

Old English

From Old English steartlian, "to kick or struggle suddenly" — related to start in its older sense of jerking or flinching.

startup

Origin

A compound formed from the phrasal verb start up, describing something newly set in motion.

starvation

Origin

Formed from starve plus the noun ending -ation.

starve

Old English

From Old English steorfan, "to die," related to German sterben ("to die") — the narrower sense of dying from hunger developed later in English.

stash

Origin

Origin uncertain — possibly a blend of stow and cache, or of stick and cache.

Stasi

German

From the abbreviated German name of East Germany's Ministry for State Security, the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, notorious for surveilling its own citizens.

stasis

Ancient Greek

From Ancient Greek stasis, meaning "a standing still" — the same root as the word stand.

stat

Latin

Borrowed from Latin statim, meaning "immediately."

state

Latin

From Latin status, "manner of standing, condition," by way of Old French estat — the same root that gives us estate and status.

state of the art

English

From art in its older sense of a practical skill or craft, as in the arts and sciences, so the phrase means the current condition of the craft.

stately

Middle English

From Middle English stateli, formed from state plus the adjective ending -ly.