stirk

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English

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Etymology

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From Middle English stirk, sterke, styrke, from Old English stīrc, stȳrc, stȳric, stīorc (calf, a stirk, a young bullock or a heifer), from Proto-West Germanic *stiurik, from Proto-Germanic *stiurikaz (bullock), diminutive of Proto-Germanic *steuraz (steer), equivalent to steer +‎ -ock. Cognate with Middle Low German sterke (stirk), Middle Dutch stierick ("stirk"; compare Modern Dutch sterke (young cow)), German Sterk, Stärke, Stark (stirk). More at steer.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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stirk (plural stirks)

  1. (British, Scotland, dialectal, dated) A yearling cow; a young bullock or heifer.
    • 1827, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Chronicles of the Canongate; [], volume I (The Highland Widow), Edinburgh: [] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 197:
      But beware of MacPhadraick, my son; for when he called himself the friend of your father, he better loved the most worthless stirk in his herd, than he did the life-blood of MacTavish Mhor.
    • 1843 March 3, “To Be Sold by Auction, By B. Cheatle & Son”, in Leicester Journal, and Midland Counties General Advertiser, volume 92, number 4895, Leicester: James Jackson, page 2:
      Comprising eleven calved and in-calf cows and heifers, three barren cows, four fat cows and heifers, two sturks and three yearlings; fifteen in-lamb ewes and theaves, []
    • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 20:
      he could stop a running stirk by the horns, so strong he was in the wrist-bones.

Anagrams

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