stubble

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English stuble, also stobil and stouple,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman stuble, estuble,^[5][6][7] also borrowed from Old French estuble, estoble (modern dialect French éteule).^[5][8][9] The French word is from Vulgar Latin *stupla, a reduced form of Late Latin stupula, a variant of Latin stipula (“stalk, stem, straw”),^{[5][8][3][10]} itself a diminutive of stipes (“stalk, trunk”).^[3] Klein explains stupula as assimilated from stipula.^[11] The same popular Latin form gave Old Occitan estobla and Italian stoppia,^[5][11] and was borrowed into West Germanic as Old High German stupfala, Middle Low German stoppel and Middle Dutch stoppele, whence German Stoppel and Dutch stoppel.^[5][11] The OED thinks the word may have merged in English with a native word from the root of stub, and Etymonline that it was probably reinforced by stub.^[5][8] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the early 12th century for stubble, the dried stalk of a crop, and straw.^[7] Latin stipula is also the source of stipule.^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Each of the stumps of grain stalks left in the ground after reaping: 1297, in Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle,^[5][2] about 1300 in Barnhart, who gives the form stouple for "stalk of grain".^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

The collective use for all the stalks left standing in a field is recorded from before 1340, in Richard Rolle's Psalter,^[5][3][8] and the straw gathered up after harvest from 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the stalks of corn left in the field by the reaper".^[12] Stubble being burnt or worthless, the word served in figurative uses from the late 16th century,^[5] and before 1596, in the play Sir Thomas More, it was first transferred to a rough, short growth, especially the bristles on an unshaven face.^[5][3][8] In 18th-century slang it also meant a woman's pubic hair.^[13] From 1792 stubbles were the reaped fields themselves,^[5] and in sugar planting stubble is the cane after its first year (1846).^[5] The compound designer stubble, a beard deliberately left short for a rugged look, is recorded from 1985.^[5] The verb, to clear land of stubble, appears before 1492, in Caxton,^[5] and the cant stubble it!, hold your tongue, in 1699.^[5] Middle English also had stubble goose, a goose fattened on the stubble;^[2][14] in Scots and northern dialect a stubble-goose was the greylag goose, and a stubble-rig a stubble field.^[15] Etymonline records stubble-jumper, a contemptuous name for a prairie farmer, by 1946.^[8]

Timeline

• 1297 – each stump of a grain stalk left after reaping.^[5][2]
• before 1340 – collectively, the stalks left standing in a reaped field.^[5][3]
• 1382 – the straw gathered after the harvest.^[5]
• before 1492 – verb, to clear land of stubble.^[5]
• before 1596 – a short bristly growth, especially on an unshaven face.^[5][3]
• 1699 – cant, stubble it!, hold your tongue.^[5]
• 1772 – slang, a woman's pubic hair.^[13]
• 1792 – a reaped field not yet ploughed.^[5]
• 1846 – sugar cane in the field after the first year.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The short stalks of a cereal or other crop left standing in a field after harvest: Geese were feeding on the barley stubble.^[16][17][5]
2. A short, rough, bristly growth, especially of beard on an unshaven face: two days' stubble on his chin.^[16][17][5]
3. The straw of grain gathered after the harvest.^[17][5]
4. A field that has been reaped and not yet ploughed; a stubble field.^[5][16]

Verb

1. To clear land of stubble.^[5]
2. To leave in stubble, or cover with stubble: Grey bristles stubbled his jaw.^[17]

Word family

• stubbled
• stubbly

Related words

• stipule
• stipulate
• stub

Usage notes

The OED records a separate obsolete adjective stubble, perhaps meaning clumsy or stoutly built, from before 1300 to 1572; it is of uncertain origin, probably connected with stub.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster