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sty

noun

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L15738 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /staɪ/

noun

Etymology: 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”).

  1. An inflammation of the eyelid.

verb

Etymology: 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.

  1. To ascend, rise up, climb.

    “The beast impatient of his smarting wound, / And of so fierce and forcible despight, / Thought with his wings to stye aboue the ground [...].”

    “From this lower tract he dared to stie up to the clowdes.”