Etymologically
Log in

stab

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:33. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

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
  • 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