stif

Forms

stīf^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *stīf, from Proto-Germanic *stīfaz (“stiff, rigid”).^[1][2] The adjective is shared with Old Frisian stīf (“resolute”), Middle Low German stīf and Middle High German stīf (“rigid”);^[2][3][4] Old Frisian also has stef.^[2][3][4]

Orel relates it to Latin obstīpus (“bent aside or backwards”), stīpō (“to press”), stīpes (“stem, stick”) and Lithuanian stìpti (“to stiffen”).^[2] Holthausen adds Old Norse stífla (“to dam up”) and words for a peg or nail such as Old High German steft.^[3] Köbler traces it to the root Proto-Indo-European *steyp- (“stick, stiff”) (Pokorny's *stē̆ip-), and Wiktionary reconstructs a pre-Germanic *stéypos.^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is rare in Old English: the DOE Corpus has five tokens in five texts, four of them glosses, none in a manuscript that can be dated.^[5] The one prose record, in the Worcester fragment of the Soul's Address to the Body, says of the dead body he biþ sone stif “he is soon stiff”; the MED dates that manuscript c. 1225.^[6][5] Bosworth and Toller cite stifne glossing Latin “rigentem” “stiff, rigid”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the word means physically stiff, unbending and rigid.^[7][8] The verb stīfian (“to become stiff”) is made from it.^[7] In Middle English, as Middle English stif, it was used of a corpse in rigor mortis and of a tightly strung bow, then of firm and sturdy things and of people resolute, strong and fierce.^[6] It survives as English stiff.^[6][9]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – he biþ sone stif in the Worcester fragment of the Soul's Address to the Body, which the DOE Corpus includes.^[6][5]
• c. 1275 – ȝe sculen liggen stif “you shall lie stiff” in Laȝamon's Brut.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. stiff, unbending, rigid.^[7][8][4]
2. firm, hard; strong, fixed.^[1]

Word family

• stīfian

Descendants

• Middle English stif (→ English stiff; Scots stif; Scots stiff)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 378
3. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 322
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. stīf
5. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
6. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 919
8. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 184
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com