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”).
- 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.
- 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.”