stocking

Etymology

It is formed from English stock + -ing,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from stock in a sense now obsolete, a covering for the leg,^[2][7][8][9] recorded from 1457^[2] or the late 15th century.^[7] The OED derives it from the verb stock, to cover the leg with a stock (1430–40).^[6] Hoad calls the formation obscure.^[10] Skeat and Weekley explain that men's hose came to be cut in two at the knee, into “upper stocks” and “nether stocks”, and that stocking first stood for “nether-stock”;^[11][12] Cotgrave's dictionary glosses French bas de chausses as "a stocking, or netherstocke".^[12] Weekley compares German Strumpf, stocking, originally a stump of the hose.^[12] Stock in this sense is probably the same word as stock, a tree trunk,^[8][2] from Old English stocc (“stump, post, log”);^[7] Etymonline traces it instead to stocu (“sleeve”), a word related to stocc.^[7] Why a leg covering was called a stock is uncertain: perhaps the legs were likened to tree trunks,^[7][2] perhaps the stocks used to hold an offender's legs were compared, half in jest, with hose.^[9][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A close-fitting knitted or woven garment for the foot and leg: 1583, in Philip Stubbes's Second Part of the Anatomie of Abuses.^[6][2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1580,^[13] Etymonline to the 1580s.^[7]

Semantic evolution

For centuries stocking was worn by men and women alike: Johnson (1755) simply calls it the covering of the leg, quoting Malvolio's yellow stockings in Shakespeare.^[14] Its narrowing to women's hose, usually thin and see-through, of silk or nylon, is a 20th-century development;^[9][7][6] the older use survives in the phrase in one's stocking feet, without shoes,^[9][3] found by 1766 in statements of a person's height.^[7][6] The Christmas stocking is recorded in American English from 1830,^[7] in the OED from 1854,^[6] with stocking-filler from 1862 and stocking-stuffer from 1891.^[7] From 1873 a stocking was also a store of money hidden in one, and so a person's savings.^[6][7] In the 19th century the word was applied to the white lower part of a horse's leg (1821, Scott),^[6] to elastic surgical stockings (1876)^[6] and to a bandage for a horse's leg (1875).^[6] An old wedding custom was throwing the stocking, in which the bride's stocking was thrown among the guests (1694).^[6] In British criminal slang stocking meant money (1865).^[15] Northern dialect had stocking-feet, the feet covered only by stockings.^[16]

Timeline

• 1457 – stock, a leg covering, the base of the word.^[2]
• 1583 – a close-fitting garment covering the foot and leg.^[6][2]
• 1694 – to throw the stocking, a wedding-night custom.^[6]
• 1755 – verb, to supply with stockings (Johnson).^[6]
• 1766 – stocking-feet in statements of height.^[7]
• 1821 – a differently coloured lower part of an animal's leg.^[6]
• 1830 – the Christmas stocking, in American English.^[7]
• 1873 – a stocking used to keep money; savings.^[6][7]
• 1876 – an elastic surgical stocking.^[6]
• 20th century – chiefly a woman's leg covering.^[9][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A close-fitting knitted or woven covering for the foot and leg, now usually a woman's thin one reaching to the thigh: a pair of silk stockings.^[3][13][6]
2. A sock.^[13]
3. Something like a stocking in shape or use, such as an elastic support for the leg.^[3][13][6]
4. A part of an animal's leg, especially a horse's, of a different colour from the rest.^[6][17]
5. in one's stocking feet (or stockinged feet): wearing stockings or socks but no shoes: He stood six feet tall in his stocking feet.^[3][6]

Verb

1. To put stockings on; to supply with stockings.^[13][6]

Word family

• stockinged
• stockingless
• bluestocking
• silk-stocking
• stocking stuffer
• body stocking
• Christmas stocking

Related words

• stock

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press