stillth

English

Alternative forms

• stilth

Etymology

From Middle English stilthe, from Old English *stilþ, *stillþ, *stillþu (“stillness”), from Proto-Germanic *stilliþō (“stillness, quietness”), equivalent to still +‎ -th. Cognate with West Frisian stilte (“silence, stillness, quietness”), Dutch stilte (“silence, stillness, quietness”), Low German stilte (“quietness”), Old High German stillida (“quietness”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪlθ

Noun

stillth (uncountable)

1. The state, quality, or condition of being still; stillness; tranquility; peace.
   • 1921, Gilbert Frankau, The seeds of enchantment:

     And suddenly the magic of this place — the fragrance and the stillth and the peace of it — took Dicky by the throat.

   • 1953, James Reynolds, James Reynolds' Ireland:

     […] a battle rages in the old pile again tonight. "Will no stilth ever come to bad auld Fergus Keep?" a man of the roads once said to me, when I stopped to rest on a bridge high above the gorge of White Abbey. He was maundering and mouthing about battles and thirst, in one breath.

   • 1965, West & East, an independent monthly:

     Whenever I was in deep thought in the stillth of a night in longing for the mainland, it seemed that a voice was calling in the dark.