steam

Pronunciation

• IPA: /stiːm/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English stem, inherited from Old English stēam (“vapour, fume, odour”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *staumaz,^[2][3][4] also the source of Dutch stoom, West Frisian and Low German stoom “steam”.^[3][5] It is of unknown origin.^[2][3] The verb is from Old English stēman, stīman “to give off a scent”, related to the noun.^[3][4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A vapour or fume given off by something heated or burned, also an odour: about 1000 in the OED,^[7] before 1000 in Barnhart.^[3] In Old English steam was any kind of hot vapour or gas.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The modern meaning, water in the form of vapour, settled in the 15th century (the mid-15th century in Etymonline).^[8][2][4] A ray of light or a flame was a Middle English sense (about 1300),^[7] and the verb meant to glow or emit flame in Chaucer (about 1387–1395);^[3][7] to give off steam is from 1614.^[3] Steam that drives an engine is from the 1690s,^[2] the steam engine from 1751 and the steamboat from 1787.^[3] To travel by steam power is from 1831,^[2] and to cook or treat with steam from 1798.^[2] Let off steam was literal in 1783 and figurative by 1845, and blow off steam figurative from 1857.^[2][8] Steamed up, enthusiastic, is from 1913, and steam up, to make angry, American English by 1921.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – a vapour, fume or odour.^[7]
• c. 1300 – a ray of light, a flame.^[7]
• mid-15th century – water vapour.^[2]
• 1690s – steam that drives an engine.^[2]
• 1751 – steam engine.^[3]
• 1787 – steamboat.^[3]
• 1831 – to travel by steam.^[2]
• 1845 – let off steam, figuratively.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The hot gas that water turns into when it boils.
2. Steam under pressure used for power or heating.
3. (informal) Energy or momentum: run out of steam.

Verb

1. To give off steam.
2. To cook or treat with steam.
3. To move by steam power, or to move quickly.
4. To become covered with condensed steam, often with up.
5. (informal) To be very angry.

Word family

• steamless
• outsteam
• presteam
• steamer
• steam up

Related words

• steamboat
• steamroller

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press