Etymologically
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steal

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /stiːl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English stelen, inherited from Old English stelan (“to commit theft”),[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *stelanan, the source also of Dutch stelen, German stehlen and Gothic stilan,[2][3] of unknown origin.[4] It is perhaps from a variant of Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“to rob, steal”), but Boutkan finds no good Indo-European etymology for it.[2][3] It is related to stealth and stalk “walk stealthily”.[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To take dishonestly: before 800 in Old English, and about 1150 in Middle English.[3][2] The OED notes that secrecy seems part of the verb's original meaning.[2]

Semantic evolution

To go secretly is from before 1160 in Barnhart, about 1300 in Etymonline, probably after Old Norse stelask,[3][2][4] and steal away from the late 14th century.[2] Of kisses it is from the late 14th century, of time from the 1520s, and of glances from the 1580s.[2] Plagiarism is by the 1540s.[2] Sports senses begin in cricket in 1836.[2] Steal the show is by 1916,[2] and steal someone's thunder is said to come from the playwright John Dennis, whose stage thunder effect was used in a production of Macbeth.[5] The noun, a theft, is from 1825,[2][3] and a bargain from 1942, in American English.[2]

Timeline

  • a. 800 – to take dishonestly.[3]
  • a. 1160 – to go secretly.[3]
  • 1540s – to plagiarize.[2]
  • 1825 – noun, a theft.[2][3]
  • 1836 – in cricket.[2]
  • 1942 – a bargain.[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To take something that belongs to someone else without permission.
  2. To use someone's ideas or words as one's own; to plagiarize.
  3. To move quietly and secretly.
  4. To get something by surprise or cleverness: steal a kiss.
  5. (baseball) To reach the next base by running while the pitcher throws.

Noun

  1. (informal) A bargain.
  2. (informal) A theft.

Word family

  • stealer
  • stealable
  • outsteal
  • stealage
  • stealth
  • double steal
  • stealthy
  • stolen

Usage notes

A different noun steal, the stalk of a plant or the handle of a tool, from Old English stela, is from about 700 and is now dialectal.[6][5]

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 g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press