stoke

Etymology

It is a back-formation from stoker, one who tends a furnace (1660),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which is borrowed from Dutch stoker,^[2][4][3] an agent noun from stoken (“to feed a fire, to stoke”),^[2][4][7] from Middle Dutch stōken (“to poke, thrust”).^[3][4][5] Merriam-Webster compares Middle Low German stōken (“to poke”),^[8] and the Middle Dutch verb is related to stoc (“stick, stump”) and so to English stock.^[3][4][8] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Germanic *stukōną (“to be stiff, push”),^[1] and Ayto explains the Germanic base as a variant of the one in stick and stitch, meaning "pierce, prick", so that the underlying image is of thrusting fuel into a fire like a sharp point.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To feed, stir up and poke the fire in a furnace, or tend the furnace of a boiler: 1683, in J. Moxon's Mechanick Exercises,^[2] where Barnhart finds it implied in stoking-hole.^[3] Etymonline dates it to the 1680s and Dictionary.com to 1675–85.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the verb was later used especially of the fire under the boiler of a steam engine.^[4] The figurative sense, to stir up or rouse feelings such as hate or lust, is recorded from 1837, in T. Hood.^[2][4][3] From 1882 the verb was used jocularly of eating: to feed oneself or someone else as if stoking a furnace, or to shovel food steadily into one's mouth, also as stoke up;^[2][4] in Australian slang it meant simply to feed or eat (1900).^[10] The past participle stoked, thrilled or excited, is surfing slang recorded from 1963.^[2][4] In Norfolk, Kent, Surrey and Sussex dialect the verb meant to stir the fire.^[11]

Timeline

• 1660 – stoker, one who tends a furnace.^[2][3]
• 1683 – to feed and stir up a fire or furnace.^[2][3]
• 1837 – figurative, to stir up feelings.^[2][4][3]
• 1882 – jocular, to feed oneself, to shovel in food.^[2][4]
• 1900 – Australian slang, to eat.^[10]
• 1963 – stoked, thrilled, in surfing slang.^[2][4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To add fuel to a fire, furnace or boiler and stir it so that it burns better, often with up: He stoked the stove before going to bed.
2. To tend the furnace of an engine or boiler.
3. To encourage or incite a feeling, conflict or the like: The rumours stoked fears of a strike.
4. (informal) To feed someone or oneself heavily; to eat steadily.
5. (slang) stoked: thrilled or elated.

Word family

• stokehold
• unstoked
• stokehole

Related words

• stoker
• stock
• stick
• stitch

Usage notes

The stoke, a unit of kinematic viscosity in the centimetre–gram–second system, is named after the British mathematician and physicist Sir George G. Stokes.^[8] An obsolete verb stoke, to pierce or stab, recorded from before 1300 to 1513, is perhaps from Old French estoquier.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ 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)