sty

See also: stý

English

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /staɪ/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Rhymes: -aɪ
Homophone: stye

Etymology 1

From Middle English sty, from Old English stī, stiġ (“sty, pen, a wooden enclosure; hall”, chiefly in compounds).

Cognate with German Stiege (“wooden crate”), dialectal German Steige (“hen-coop”), Danish sti (“sty, enclosure for swine, sheep, hens, etc.”), Swedish stia (“sty for pigs, geese, etc.”), Norwegian sti (“flock of sheep”), Icelandic stía (“a kennel”).

Noun

sty (plural sties)

A pen or enclosure for swine.
(figurative) A messy, dirty or debauched place.
- 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:
  To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.

Alternative forms

stye

Synonyms

(enclosure for swine): pigpen, pigsty
(messy or dirty place): hovel, pigsty

Derived terms

throw an ant into a sty

Translations

enclosure for swine

Bulgarian: кочина (bg) (kočina)
Czech: chlívek m
Danish: sti (da) c, svinesti c
Dutch: varkensstal (nl) m
Faroese: stíggjur m
Finnish: sikolätti (fi)
French: porcherie (fr) f
Hungarian: disznóól (hu)
Irish: cró muc m, cró muice m
Italian: porcile (it) m
Japanese: 豚舎 (ja) (とんしゃ, tonsha), 豚小屋 (ja) (ぶたごや, butagoya)
Latin: hara f
Latvian: cūkkūts f, cūku kūts f
Macedonian: ко́чина f (kóčina), сви́њарник m (svínjarnik)
Maori: rāihe, pākoro, pākorokoro
Ottoman Turkish: طوڭوزلق (doñuzluk)
Polish: chlew (pl) m
Portuguese: chiqueiro (pt) m, pocilga (pt) f
Romanian: cocină (ro) f
Russian: хлев (ru) m (xlev), свина́рник (ru) m (svinárnik)
Serbo-Croatian:
Roman: svinjac (sh) m
Slovak: krmník m
Spanish: pocilga (es) f
Swedish: stia (sv), svinstia (sv)

messy or dirty place

Bulgarian: кочина (bg) (kočina)
Czech: chlív (cs) m
Danish: svinesti c
Dutch: varkensstal (nl) m
Finnish: läävä (fi), sikolätti (fi)
French: porcherie (fr) f
Hungarian: disznóól (hu)
Japanese: 豚小屋 (ja) (ぶたごや, butagoya)
Latvian: cūkkūts f, cūku kūts f
Macedonian: ко́чина f (kóčina), сви́њарник m (svínjarnik)
Polish: chlew (pl) m
Portuguese: chiqueiro (pt) m
Russian: свина́рник (ru) m (svinárnik)
Serbo-Croatian:
Roman: svinjac (sh) m
Swedish: stia (sv), svinstia (sv)

Verb

sty (third-person singular simple present sties, present participle stying, simple past and past participle stied)

(transitive) To place in, or as if in, a sty.
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
  and here you sty me
  In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
  The rest o' the island
(transitive) To live in a sty, or any messy or dirty place.

Alternative forms

stye

Etymology 2

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.

Verb

sty (third-person singular simple present sties, present participle stying, simple past and past participle stied)

(obsolete) To ascend, rise up, climb. [9th–17th c.]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
  The beast impatient of his smarting wound, / And of so fierce and forcible despight, / Thought with his wings to stye aboue the ground [...].
- 1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Muiopotmos, or The Fate of the Butterflie”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC:
  From this lower tract he dared to stie up to the clowdes.
- 1621, Richard Montague, Diatribae upon the first part of the late History of Tithes:
  Led along, as some Creatures are, by the Noses, and voluntarily hood-winked; or like seeled Doves, sty up, you know not whither, nor how far.
- 1652, Edward Benlowes, Theophila, or Love's Sacrifice:
  That she might sty to the seat of Beatifick Mirth.

Alternative forms

stee, stie, stigh, stye

Derived terms

Related terms

stile

Translations

to rise up — see ascend

Noun

sty (plural sties)

(British, dialectal) A ladder.

Translations

ladder — see ladder

Etymology 3

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”).

Alternative forms

stye

Noun

sty (plural sties)

(pathology) An inflammation of the eyelid.

Translations

inflammation — see stye

Anagrams

YTS

Middle English

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old English stiġ, stī, from Proto-West Germanic *stij, from Proto-Germanic *stiją, related to *stīganą (“to climb, ascend”).

Alternative forms

stye, styȝe

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /stiː/

Noun

sty (plural styes)

A pigsty (pen or set of pens for pigs)
(rare) Any other crude dwelling or abode.

Descendants

English: sty

References

“stī, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-08.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old English stīġ, from Proto-West Germanic *stīgu, from Proto-Germanic *stīgō, related to Etymology 1 above.

Alternative forms

sti, stie, stiȝe, stiȝhe, stiyhe, stye

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /stiː/

Noun

sty (plural styes or stiȝen)

A path, track or street.
(figurative) One's chosen pathway or choices in life.
(figurative, rare) A short narrative.

References

“stī(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-08.