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Etymology and origin of the English word stent

Pronunciation

stent1 assessment, tax

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1390 before 1390, Wyclif
Borrowed from
Old French estente via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin extendō

Etymology

The word for an assessment is inherited from Middle English stente (“valuation”),[2] borrowed from Old French estente,[3][4][5] which in Anglo-Norman is recorded from 1281–86 for the valuation of land and the amount of a valuation.[6] Old French estente is related to extente, the source of extent;[5][4][7] Merriam-Webster derives the Middle English word by shortening and alteration from extente itself.[8] Extent goes back to the feminine past participle of extendre, from Latin extendō (“to stretch out”).[9] The OED notes that the word seems to have been partly confused with stint.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The valuation of property for taxation, and the amount assessed, a tax or duty: before 1390, in Wyclif's English works.[3] Stratmann cites stente glossed "taxacio" in the Promptorium Parvulorum.[2]

Semantic evolution

The word lived on mainly in Scotland, where a stent was the assessment of property for taxation and the tax itself.[5][10] The verb, to assess or tax a person or community, followed by about 1440, either from the noun or as a shortened form of the verb extent;[3] from 1548 it was used for assessing land and goods, and since 1633 for fixing the sum of an assessment.[3] A stentmaster was the official who fixed each person's share.[5][11] Wright's English Dialect Dictionary still records the noun and verb in Scotland about 1900, but marks them obsolete or obsolescent.[10] The Shorter Oxford calls the word now chiefly historical.[5]

Timeline

  • before 1390 – an assessment of property for taxation; a tax.[3]
  • c. 1440 – verb, to assess or tax.[3]
  • 1544 – adjective, assessed, taxed.[3]
  • 1548 – verb, to assess and tax land or goods.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly Scottish, historical) An assessment of property for taxation; the tax so assessed.[5][3][7][11]

Verb

  1. (chiefly Scottish, historical) To assess or tax a person, community or property.[5][3][11]

stent2 medical tube

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Eponym
First attested
1878 C. Hunter, Mechanical Dentistry

Etymology

The word for the medical tube comes from the surname of the English dentist Charles Thomas Stent (1807–85), who invented a compound for taking dental impressions.[3][5][4][12] The American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster name him instead as Charles R. Stent (1845–1901).[13][8] Etymonline derives the word from Ancient Greek στενός (stenós, “narrow”),[9] and Dictionary.com calls its origin uncertain.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The substance invented by Stent for taking dental impressions, or an impression made with it: 1878, in C. Hunter's Mechanical Dentistry.[3][8]

Semantic evolution

Stent's compound was also used to make casts of a part or a body cavity that kept up pressure and so helped healing, especially of a skin graft;[5][7] Merriam-Webster extends the word to anything, such as a pad of gauze held by stitches, used in the same way.[8] The sense of a splint inside a duct or vessel dates from the 1960s:[4] the OED first records a tube implanted in a vessel in 1964, in the Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry,[3] and Etymonline dates the anatomical sense to the same year.[9] Today the word usually means a small mesh tube placed in an artery during angioplasty to keep it open.[13][12]

Timeline

  • 1878 – a compound for dental impressions, or a cast made of it.[3][8]
  • 1964 – a tube implanted in a vessel or duct.[3][9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A short tube, often of wire mesh or plastic, placed inside a blood vessel or other duct to keep it open, as after angioplasty.[13][8][12][7]
  2. A mold or compound used to hold a skin graft in place or to keep a body cavity open during grafting.[8][13][7]

Usage notes

Other words spelled stent are recorded in British dialect: to stint or put on rations, a variant of stint;[10][11] chiefly in Scotland, to stretch out or extend, perhaps altered from stend;[3][8][10] and in Cornwall, rubble left by tin-streamers, of uncertain origin.[3][10]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  7. ^ a b c d e Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ a b c d e 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)
  11. ^ a b c d The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap
  12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Stent.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/stent. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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