stealthy

Etymology

It is formed from English stealth + -y.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The base noun is from Middle English stelthe (“theft”), also stalthe,^[5][2][3] whose wavering vowel points to an unrecorded Old English *stǣlþ,^[2][7] a noun related to steal.^[2][3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Moving or proceeding by stealth: the OED's first quotation is from Shakespeare's Macbeth, "Wither'd Murther..with his stealthy pace", written before 1616 and printed in 1623.^[2] Barnhart dates the word to 1605,^[9] Etymonline to about 1600,^[3] Dictionary.com to 1595–1605,^[6] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged, with no quotation, to 1565.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The noun stealth first meant theft;^[3][2] the adjective goes with its later sense of secret action, which Barnhart dates from about 1300.^[10] Johnson (1755) defined it as "done clandestinely; performed by stealth", quoting the same line of Macbeth.^[11] The OED records its use both of actions and of people or things that move secretly, and of what comes on by imperceptible degrees.^[2][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged records stealth itself as an adjective from 1987, with this meaning.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1616 – of movement, taking place by stealth, in Shakespeare's Macbeth.^[2] Barnhart gives 1605.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Moving or acting quietly and carefully so as not to be noticed: A stealthy fox crept along the hedge.^[8][7][5]
2. Done in secret so as to escape notice; furtive: She took a stealthy peek at the exam schedule.^[5][12][2]
3. Advancing by imperceptible degrees: the stealthy approach of the tide.^[2][4]

Word family

• stealthily
• stealthiness
• unstealthy

Related words

• stealth
• steal

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins