steeple

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English stepel,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English stēpel, a Mercian form beside West Saxon stīepel and stȳpel, a high tower,^[5][3][2][4] from Proto-Germanic *staupilaz,^[5][3] formed from *staup-, the source of steep (high, lofty), and the suffix that gives -le.^[6][7][8] The tower was so called from its height.^[9] The Old English word also appears in place names, sometimes perhaps meaning simply a steep place.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tall tower: Old English, in the West Saxon Gospels, of the tower in Matthew 21.^[6] The sense of a church tower is dated 1154 by the OED, in a copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,^[6] and before 1121 by Barnhart, in the Peterborough Chronicle.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The general sense "a tall tower" survived until the 19th century,^[11] but from the late 12th century the word was used especially of the tower of a church, which usually held the bells.^[3][6] From the 15th century it also meant the spire on such a tower.^[6][7] Johnson (1755) defined it as a church turret generally furnished with bells, and also as a spire.^[12] In the 16th and 17th centuries it could stand for the church itself, as in bigamy of steeples for holding two church livings.^[6] From the 14th century steeple was also the name of a tall women's head-dress.^[3] The Quakers called a church building a steeple-house from the 1640s, keeping church for the body of believers.^[3][13] The steeplechase (1793) was first a race with a church steeple in view as its goal,^[5][7][14] and the steeplejack (1881) mends steeples and tall chimneys.^[5] In the 20th century a steeple was also the shape of the two hands with the fingertips meeting (1940), and the verb was used for forming it (1968).^[6][11]

Timeline

• Old English – a tall tower (obsolete by the 19th century).^[6][11]
• 1154 – a tower of a church or public building, often holding bells.^[6]
• 1473 – a spire on a church tower.^[6]
• 1555 – the church itself, by metonymy (until 1641).^[6]
• 1644 – verb, to place a bell in a steeple.^[6]
• 1892 – verb, to rise or tower like a steeple.^[6]
• 1940 – the hands held with the fingertips together.^[6]
• 1968 – verb, to put the fingers together in that shape.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tall tower on a church or other building, usually ending in a spire: The village steeple could be seen for miles.^[15][4][6]
2. The spire on top of such a tower.^[15][6]
3. Something shaped like a steeple, especially the hands held with the fingertips touching.^[4][6][15]
4. (obsolete) Any tall tower.^[6][11]

Verb

1. To put the fingers or hands together in the shape of a steeple.^[4][6][11]
2. To rise steeply like a steeple, especially as steepling.^[4][6][11]
3. (rare) To place a bell in a steeple.^[6][11]

Word family

• steepled
• steepleless
• steeplelike
• steeplebush
• steeplechasing
• steeplejack
• steeplechase

Related words

• steep

Usage notes

In Northumberland dialect steeple was also a verb for raising the front of a plough by pressing down its handles.^[13] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the OED also record steeple as an altered form of staple, from 1722 in Scotland.^[4][6]

References

1. ^ 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Smith, A. H. (1956), English Place-Name Elements, 2 vols. (English Place-Name Society 25–26), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, 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 Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins