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stark

Etymology and origin of the English word stark

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 750
Inherited from
Old English stearc
Ultimate origin
Old English (stearc)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /stɑːk/, US /stɑːrk/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English stearc (“stiff, strong, severe”) (about 750),[2][3][4] from *starkuz,[2][3] cognate with Old High German starc (German stark) and Dutch sterk, strong, and Old Norse sterkr.[2][4][5] It is related to Gothic gastaurknan, to dry up, and Old Norse storkna, to coagulate,[4][5] and Barnhart links it with Old English starian, to stare.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hard, rigid, and of a person hard, unyielding: before 900.[6][4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English it meant strong, stout and severe,[4][2] and stiff in death survives in stiff and stark.[7] By about 1300 it had become an intensive, sheer or absolute, perhaps helped by the common phrase stark dead, where stark was taken as an intensive;[3][4] stark-naked, according to Weekley, is for Middle English start-naked, from Old English steort, tail, rump.[8] The sense bare, barren is from 1833.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 750 – stearc.[2]
  • 13th century – strong, severe.[4][5]
  • 14th century – sheer, absolute.[4]
  • 1833 – bare, barren.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Bare and plain, without ornament; blunt: the stark facts.
  2. Harsh or grim; desolate: a stark landscape.
  3. Utter or complete: stark folly.
  4. (archaic) Rigid, as in death.

Adverb

  1. Utterly; entirely: stark naked, stark mad.

Word family

  • starkly
  • starkness
  • starkers
  • starch
  • stare

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray

Related etymologies

  • boat · also from Old English
  • bear · also from Old English
  • toward · also from Old English
  • yellow · also from Old English
  • else · also from Old English
  • mad · also from Old English
  • writer · also from Old English
  • soft · also from Old English
Cite this entry

“Stark.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/stark. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·