stocah
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Irish stócach and Scottish Gaelic stòcach (“an idle fellow who lives on the industry of others, a lounger”).
Noun
[edit]stocah (plural stocahs)
- (obsolete) A menial attendant.
- 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:
- hee faith is the life of a peasant or churle ; but thenceforth becommeth either an horseboy, or a stocah to some kerne, inuring himselfe to his weapon, and to the gentlemanly trade of stealing
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “stocah”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)