sting

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English stingen, inherited from Old English stingan (“to stab, pierce, prick with a point”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *stinganą.^[3][2] Its cognates are Old Norse stinga (“to stick, stab, pierce”) and Old High German stungen (“to prick”),^[5][3][6] and Old Norse stanga (“to pierce”) and German Stange (“pole, perch”) come from the same base.^[7][2][6] An imperative Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌲𐌲 (usstagg) "pluck out" may belong here, but the OED doubts its form.^[5][3] Merriam-Webster and Barnhart compare Ancient Greek στάχυς (stákhus, “ear of corn, spike”) and στόχος (stókhos, “target, aim”),^[8][3] and Etymonline suggests a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *stegh- (“to stick, prick, sting”).^[2][4] The noun is inherited from Old English sting or steng, formed from the verb;^[2][5] the OED thinks that the forms sting and styng may be separate formations from the root that later merged.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To pierce or wound with a point darted out, as wasps and scorpions do: Old English, in King Alfred's translation of Boethius, before 899.^[5][3] The noun, the act or wound of stinging, is also Old English, in the translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In Old English stingan was used of any sharp weapon: in the Battle of Maldon a warrior is stung with a spear.^[5][9] According to Ayto, this general sense was not displaced by the narrower one of insects until the late 15th century;^[9] the OED's last example of it is from 1470.^[5] The sharp organ of a bee or scorpion is called a sting from 1398, in Trevisa,^[5][2] and the stinging hair of a nettle from 1567.^[5] Figurative uses began with Chaucer, who in the Pardoner's Tale (c. 1386) used the verb for a sudden sharp pain of the mind,^[5] and the noun followed in Hoccleve (c. 1412) for a wound to the heart;^[5] Etymonline dates the mental pain of a sharp remark to the early 15th century.^[2] From 1847 the verb also meant to smart, to throb with pain.^[5] A slang sense, to rob or cheat, appears in Vaux's 1812 vocabulary of flash language,^[10] and the swindling and overcharging sense in American use from 1903–5.^[5] The noun sting for a carefully planned theft or fraud is American underworld slang of 1930,^[2][5] and the later police sense, an undercover operation to trap criminals, is a development of it.^[2][5]

Timeline

• before 899 – stingan, to wound with a sting.^[5][3]
• Old English – to pierce with a weapon (until 1470).^[5]
• Old English – the noun, a sting or its wound.^[5][2]
• c. 1386 – figurative, to hurt the mind (Chaucer).^[5]
• 1398 – the stinging organ of an insect.^[5][2]
• c. 1412 – a mental pang (Hoccleve).^[5]
• 1548 – of a plant, to cause a burning rash.^[5]
• 1812 – (slang) to rob or cheat.^[10]
• 1847 – intransitive, to smart.^[5]
• 1860 – capacity to hurt, as in take the sting out of.^[5][2]
• 1905 – to swindle or overcharge.^[5]
• 1930 – (US slang) a carefully planned theft or fraud.^[5][2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. Of an insect, animal or plant: to wound or prick with a sharp organ, often injecting poison: A wasp stung him on the wrist.
2. To cause or feel a sharp, burning pain: The salt water made her cuts sting.
3. To hurt someone's feelings: His remarks about her cooking stung her.
4. To provoke or goad someone into action.
5. (informal) To cheat someone, especially by overcharging.

Noun

1. A wound or pain caused by stinging.
2. The sharp organ with which a bee, wasp, scorpion or similar animal stings; a stinger.
3. A sharp pain of the body or mind: the sting of failure.
4. A hurtful or sharp quality, as in take the sting out of.
5. (slang) A carefully planned swindle, or a police operation in which officers pose as criminals in order to trap them.

Word family

• stingingly
• stingless
• outsting
• stingo
• stingray
• stingy
• stinging nettle

Related words

• stinger
• stang
• stick
• stake

Usage notes

In Scotland and northern England sting also meant a pole or staff, from Old English steng, a form related to stang;^[5][11] sting and ling was a way of carrying a load slung from a pole on two people's shoulders, and later "entirely, by force".^[12][5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ 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)