Etymologically
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stature

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈstæt͡ʃ.ə/[1]
  • US: /ˈstæt͡ʃ.ɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English statūre, also statur,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman stature and Old French estature,[4][5][3][2] from Latin statūra (“height of the body, size, growth”),[4][5][3][6] formed from stat-, the past participial stem of stō (“to stand”), and the suffix -ūra,[4][7] from Proto-Indo-European *stā- (“to stand”).[5][8] Klein gives the literal sense of the Latin noun as "an upright posture".[6] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1163–70, for height, posture and build and also for a statue.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Height, the natural height of the body: before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi, according to Barnhart,[3] and in the early 14th century according to Etymonline.[5] The OED's first record is from about 1380, in Sir Ferumbras, both for a person's height and for bodily build.[4]

Semantic evolution

In the late 14th century Gower used the word for the height of an animal and for a statue, a sense that died out by 1652.[4][10] From the early 16th century it was used of the size of things, especially the height of trees.[4] The figurative sense, a person's standing or importance, is dated by the OED to 1533;[4] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1834, in the writings of John Henry Newman,[3][5] and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the mid 19th century.[11] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "The height of any animal".[12] A rare verb, to give stature to, is recorded from about 1440, mostly in the participle statured.[4][10]

Timeline

  • before 1325 – height, in the Cursor Mundi.[3]
  • c. 1380 – a person's height; bodily build.[4]
  • before 1393 – the height of an animal; a statue (obsolete by 1652), in Gower.[4]
  • c. 1440 – verb, to give stature to.[4]
  • before 1522 – the size or height of a thing.[4]
  • 1533 – standing, importance.[4]
  • 1834 – figurative sense, in Newman, according to Barnhart.[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The natural height of a person or animal standing upright: a man of short stature.[13][7][4]
  2. Standing, reputation or importance gained through achievement: a scientist of international stature.[13][7][4]
  3. (obsolete, 1393–1652) A statue or effigy.[4][10]

Word family

  • statured

Usage notes

Dictionary.com lists stature with statue and statute as words that are easily confused.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University 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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House