stocky

Etymology

It is formed from English stock + -y,^[2][3][4][5] first recorded as Middle English stokki, wooden.^[6][5] Stock, a tree trunk or block of wood, is from Old English stocc (“stump, post, tree trunk”).^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Made of wood: about 1390, in the Disputation between Mary and the Cross, where Christ rides on a stokky stede, the wooden cross.^[6][2] The sense is rare and obsolete.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The modern senses start in the 17th century with plants: in 1622, in Drayton's Poly-Olbion, a stocky plant is one of stout, sturdy growth rather than tall and weedy.^[2][5][4] In 1676 the word was first used of a person or animal of short, thick-set build.^[2][5] Etymonline sees in this the image of a tree trunk, but compares also stock in the obsolete sense "trunk of the human body", recorded from the late 14th century.^[5] In the 19th century it was applied to qualities (1882) and to a stiff, severe manner (1876).^[2][4] In the dialects of the English Midlands and the South it meant headstrong, defiant or saucy, as in You stocky young rogue! from Northamptonshire,^[8][2] and Sussex had it for a horse that was restive and full of spirits.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – made of wood (obsolete).^[6][2]
• 1622 – of a plant, of stout and sturdy growth.^[2][4]
• 1676 – of a person or animal, short and thick-set.^[2]
• 1836 – (dialect) intractable, boisterous.^[2]
• 1876 – of manner, stiff, severe.^[2]
• 1915 – of a root, woody.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person or animal, short, sturdy and solidly built; thickset: a stocky little pony.^[9][4][2]
2. Of a plant, of stout, compact growth rather than tall and spindly.^[4][2]
3. (dialect) Headstrong, defiant or boisterous.^[4][2][8]
4. Stiff, cold or severe in manner.^[4][2]
5. (obsolete) Made of wood.^[2][6][3]

Word family

• stockily
• stockiness

Related words

• stock

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d 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)
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c 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)
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins