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Etymology and origin of the English word stoop

Pronunciation

stoop1 bend forward

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
800s before 899, Alfred's translation of Orosius
Inherited from
Old English stupian via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *stūpōną

Etymology

The verb to bend forward is inherited from Middle English stoupen, early stupen,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English stūpian (“to stoop, bend the back”),[5][6][3][7] from Proto-Germanic *stūpōną,[1][8] the source also of Middle Dutch stūpen (“to bow, bend”) and Old Norse stúpa (“to stand upright, tower”), with Swedish stupa (“to fall, tilt, lean forward”) and Norwegian stupa (“to fall, plunge”).[6][3][4][5] The Germanic verb is related by ablaut to steep, Old English stēap (“high, lofty”).[6][3][9][10] Etymonline suggests a source in Proto-Indo-European *(s)teu- (“to push, stick, knock, beat”), but notes that there are objections.[8] The noun is from the verb.[6][3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person, to lower the body by bending forward: in the late 9th century, in King Alfred's Old English translation of Orosius.[6][3] The Old English verb could also describe the moon, whose lit side curves downward,[5] and the OED records the sense "to incline, slope, hang over", of things, from Old English as well.[6] In Middle English it is first found as stupen, in Laȝamon's Brut (probably before 1200),[3] and the MED quotes stupin from the Life of St Juliana (c. 1225), of stretching the neck forward.[2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb also covered kneeling, bowing the head in submission and shrinking in fear,[2] and in poetry it could mean to fall headlong.[6] Chaucer used it five times.[11] The figurative sense of bowing to authority is recorded from 1530, and that of condescending, lowering oneself to something beneath one's dignity, from 1579 (the 1570s in Etymonline);[6][8] the moral sense "to degrade oneself" followed in 1743.[6] Falconry took the word over in the 1570s for the swoop of a hawk on its prey,[8][12][6] and it was also used of a dog putting its nose to the ground for a scent.[6] The noun, an act of stooping, is recorded from about 1300 in Barnhart and Etymonline, but only from about 1571 in the OED;[3][8][6] it came to mean a habitual forward bend of the back and shoulders in 1716,[6] and a condescension by 1638.[6][8] Johnson (1755) listed the noun's senses as a bending downward, a descent from dignity, and the fall of a bird on its prey.[13] Stoop-shouldered is attested from 1773.[8] In dialect use, across Scotland and England, the word had many local forms, among them stoup, steup and stowp.[14]

Timeline

  • before 899 – to bend the body forward and down, in Alfred's Orosius.[3][6]
  • before 1200 – Middle English stupen, in Laȝamon.[3]
  • c. 1300 – noun, an act of stooping.[3][8] The OED's first record is from about 1571.[6]
  • before 1400 – in poetry, to fall headlong (obsolete).[6]
  • 1530 – to bow to authority, submit.[6]
  • 1570s – in falconry, to swoop on prey.[8][6]
  • 1579 – to condescend, lower oneself.[6][8]
  • 1638 – noun, a condescension.[6]
  • 1716 – noun, a habitual forward bend of the back and shoulders.[6]
  • 1743 – to degrade oneself morally.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To bend the head and upper body forward and down, sometimes bending the knees as well: She stooped to tie her little brother's shoe.[15][4][6]
  2. To stand or walk with the head and shoulders habitually bent forward.[15][4]
  3. To lower oneself morally; to degrade oneself: I never thought he would stoop to cheating.[15][6]
  4. To condescend or deign to do something beneath one's dignity.[15][6]
  5. Of a bird of prey: to swoop down on its quarry.[15][6]
  6. (archaic) To yield or submit.[15][6]

Noun

  1. An act of stooping; a bending of the body forward.[4][6]
  2. A habitual forward bend of the back and shoulders: He walked with a slight stoop.[4][6][15]
  3. The swoop of a bird of prey on its quarry.[6][13]
  4. A condescension; a descent from dignity.[6][13]

Word family

  • stooper
  • stoopingly
  • stoop labor

stoop2 porch, front steps

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1755 S. Curwen's journal
Borrowed from
Dutch stoep
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *stōpō

Etymology

The porch is borrowed from Dutch stoep (“flight of steps, doorstep, threshold”),[8][3][6][4][7] from Middle Dutch stoep,[8][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *stōpō.[3] It is cognate with Middle Low German stōpe (“step, flight of steps”), Old High German stuofa (“step”) (modern German Stufe) and Old English stæpe (“step”),[3][4][16] and so related to step.[8][3][4] Barnhart traces the Germanic noun to Proto-Indo-European *stēb- (“post, trunk”).[3] Klein treats the word as a variant spelling of stoep.[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

A raised, uncovered platform with steps in front of the door of a house: 1755, in the journal of S. Curwen.[6][3][8][4] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1670–80, as an Americanism.[16]

Semantic evolution

Bartlett noted that, unlike most words American English took from Dutch, it had spread beyond New York State as far as the backwoods of Canada.[8] In Canada it was used for a porch or veranda, and Catherine Parr Traill wrote in 1833 that Canadians called verandas stoups.[18] The Century Dictionary, quoted by the OED, defined it as an uncovered platform before the entrance, sometimes incorrectly called a porch or veranda;[6] Etymonline also calls it properly neither.[8] In South African English the Dutch word was kept as stoep (1797).[8] The game stoopball, played by throwing a ball against a stoop or the front of a building, is recorded from 1941.[3][9]

Timeline

  • 1755 – a raised platform with steps at the entrance of a house.[6][3][8][4] Dictionary.com dates it to 1670–80.[16]
  • 1833 – in Canada, a veranda.[18]
  • 1941 – stoopball, in Budd Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run?.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (US, Canada) A small porch, platform or flight of steps at the front door of a house: The neighbours sat on the stoop on summer evenings.[4][9][6]

Word family

  • stoopball

Usage notes

A third, unrelated stoop, a post or pillar, now Scottish and dialectal, came from Old Norse stolpi;[6][9] it was used in mining for a pillar of coal left to hold up the roof,[9][4] and in cant for the pillory.[6][19] Stoup, a bucket or drinking vessel, has a separate source, Old Norse staup.[20]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  6. ^ 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 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ 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)
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  17. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  18. ^ a b Dollinger, Stefan, ed., A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, 3rd ed. (online), Vancouver: University of British Columbia, dchp.arts.ubc.ca
  19. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  20. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Related etymologies

  • skate · also from Dutch
  • hooker · also from Dutch
  • funk · also from Dutch
  • stoke · also from Dutch
  • gin · also from Dutch
  • rant · also from Dutch
  • bamboo · also from Dutch
  • bluff · also from Dutch
Cite this entry

“Stoop.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/stoop. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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