stab

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English stabben, found before 1530 only in Scots writers, while the noun stabbe is in an English glossary of 1440.^[2][3][4] Its origin is uncertain.^[3][5][6] The OED relates it to the dialect verb Scots stob (“to pierce, stab”), and Merriam-Webster thinks it is probably an alteration of that word;^[2][7] Klein, Weekley and Etymonline take stob from a noun meaning "stake, nail", perhaps a variant of stub.^[8][9][10] Barnhart doubts the connection, since stob is not recorded before 1529.^[3][10] Skeat instead compared Swedish stabbe (“thick stick, stump”) (in dialect) and Icelandic stabbi (“stump”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To strike or wound with a pointed weapon, used absolutely: in Barbour's Bruce, written about 1375 and quoted by the OED from a copy of 1487.^[2][3] The noun, a wound made by stabbing, is first recorded in 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The transitive verb, to wound or kill someone with a dagger or knife, is first recorded in Palsgrave's dictionary of 1530, and the noun for the act of stabbing in the same book.^[2][3][10] The verb was long used of a wound given treacherously;^[10] figurative uses, of words or feelings that pierce like a blade, appear from the 1590s,^[10] and Johnson (1755) gave as one sense of the noun "a dark injury; a sly mischief".^[12] Shakespeare also used the verb with a sexual sense.^[2][13] The image of an attack from behind gave stab in the back for a betrayal: Etymonline dates the noun to 1881 and the verb to 1888, the OED the verb to 1916 (in Bernard Shaw) and the noun to 1922 (in Joyce's Ulysses).^[10][2] The colloquial sense "an attempt", as in have a stab at, began in American English: 1895 in the OED and Etymonline, 1908 in Barnhart,^[2][10][3] with an Australian use from 1885 in Green's Dictionary of Slang.^[13] Later uses include a sudden sharp pain (1865) and a flash of bright colour against dark surroundings (1894).^[2]

Timeline

• about 1375 – stabben, to thrust with a pointed weapon, in Barbour's Bruce.^[3][2]
• 1440 – noun, a stab wound.^[2][3]
• 1530 – to wound with a pointed weapon; noun, an act of stabbing.^[2][3]
• 1590s – figurative use, to cause keen pain.^[10]
• 1846 – to roughen a wall with a pick before plastering.^[2]
• 1865 – a sudden sharp pain.^[2]
• 1873 – (billiards) a short stiff stroke.^[2]
• 1881 – stab in the back, a treacherous deed, in Etymonline's dating.^[10]
• 1895 – (originally US) an attempt.^[2][10]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To pierce or wound with a pointed weapon such as a knife or dagger.
2. To make a thrust or jab at something with a pointed object: She stabbed at the ice with her pole.
3. Of pain or a feeling, to strike sharply and suddenly.
4. stab in the back: to betray someone who trusts one.

Noun

1. A thrust with a pointed weapon, or the wound it makes.
2. A sudden sharp pain or feeling: a stab of regret.
3. (informal) An attempt, especially in have or take a stab at.
4. a stab in the back: a treacherous act.

Word family

• stabber
• stabbing
• backstab
• unstabbed
• backstabbing

Related words

• stub
• stob

Usage notes

A Scots stab, a stake or post, recorded from 1680, is probably a variant of stob.^[2][7][14] In printers' slang stab was short for establishment, regular weekly wages as opposed to piecework, from 1864.^[2][15][7] In medicine a stab cell is a white blood cell with a rod-shaped nucleus, from German Stab (“rod”) (1929).^[2][15] In Surrey and Sussex dialect a stab was also the small hole in which a rabbit hides her young.^[14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press