stark
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L28007 on Wikidata ↗adverb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L333682 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /stɑɹk/ / /stɑːk/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English stark, starc, from Old English stearc, starc (“stiff, rigid, unyielding, obstinate, hard, strong, severe, violent”), from Proto-West Germanic *stark, from Proto-Germanic *starkuz (“stiff, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian sterc (“strong”), Dutch sterk (“strong”), Low German sterk (“strong”), German stark (“strong”), Danish stærk (“strong”), Swedish stark (“strong”), Norwegian sterk (“strong”), Icelandic sterkur (“strong”). Related to starch. In the phrase stark naked: an alternation of Middle English stert naked, from stert (“tail”), a literal parallel to the modern butt naked.
- Hard, firm; obdurate.
- Severe; violent; fierce (now usually in describing the weather).
“Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.”
- Strong; vigorous; powerful.
“Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer.”
“a stark, moss-trooping Scot”
- Stiff, rigid.
“His heauie head, deuoide of carefull carke, / Whose sences all were straight benumbd and starke.”
“Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff / Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies.”
- Plain in appearance; barren, desolate.
“I picked my way forlornly through the stark, sharp rocks.”
“I would have to remind her, counteringly, that you don’t pick the person who fronts your life—you get picked, you watch the picker’s ankles vanish into the scrunched socks afterward (his whole body going blank behind the blue-black of the uniform), and the picker goes off in the starkest of transportations: you keep an ear cocked ever after for the return of his van and its paraphernalian clatter in the gravelled driveway.”
- Naked.
“They bore me to a cavern in the hill Beneath that column, and unbound me there; And one did strip me stark; and one did fill A vessel from the putrid pool; one bare A lighted torch, and four with friendless care Guided my steps the cavern-paths along […]”
- Complete, absolute, full.
“I screamed in stark terror.”
“A flower was growing, in stark contrast, out of the sidewalk.”
adv
Etymology: From Middle English stark, starc, from Old English stearc, starc (“stiff, rigid, unyielding, obstinate, hard, strong, severe, violent”), from Proto-West Germanic *stark, from Proto-Germanic *starkuz (“stiff, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian sterc (“strong”), Dutch sterk (“strong”), Low German sterk (“strong”), German stark (“strong”), Danish stærk (“strong”), Swedish stark (“strong”), Norwegian sterk (“strong”), Icelandic sterkur (“strong”). Related to starch. In the phrase stark naked: an alternation of Middle English stert naked, from stert (“tail”), a literal parallel to the modern butt naked.
- Starkly; entirely, absolutely.
“He's gone stark, staring mad.”
“She was just standing there, stark naked.”
name
Etymology: * As a Scottish and English surname, from the adjective stark. * As a Jewish, German, and Swedish surname, from stark (“strong”), related to the above. This surname also appears in Czech and Slovak as Štark.
- A surname.
- A number of places in the United States:
- A number of places in the United States:
- A number of places in the United States:
- A number of places in the United States:
- A number of places in the United States:
- A number of places in the United States:
- A number of places in the United States:
- A number of places in the United States:
- A number of places in the United States:
noun
Etymology: * As a Scottish and English surname, from the adjective stark. * As a Jewish, German, and Swedish surname, from stark (“strong”), related to the above. This surname also appears in Czech and Slovak as Štark.
- The language spoken in the Ender's Game series, which is nearly identical to American English.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English starken, from Old English stearcian (“to stiffen, become hard, grow stiff or hard”), from Proto-Germanic *starkōną, *starkēną (“to stiffen, become hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with German erstarken (“to strengthen”).
- To stiffen.