stuffy

Etymology

It is formed from English stuff + -y.^[2][3][4][5] The noun stuff is from Old French estoffe (“quilted material, furniture, provisions”), from estoffer (“to equip, stock”), of obscure origin.^[3][2] Skeat derived stuffy, in the sense "close, stifling", instead from an Old French verb meaning to choke, the source of French étouffer.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Packed full of stuff or substance, literally and figuratively: 1551–2, in an Act of Parliament of Edward VI.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to about 1552,^[7] and Etymonline to the 1550s.^[3] The sense is obsolete; the OED's last record is from 1667.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

After the first sense died out in the 17th century, the word reappeared in the early 19th century with new meanings.^[2][4] In 1813 Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice used it figuratively for "lacking freshness or interest, dull",^[2][3] and by 1831 it was used of a room or building that was badly ventilated, or of air that was stale and close.^[2][3] From 1847 it described a person who feels blocked in the nose or chest,^[2] which Etymonline dates for the nose and sinuses to 1871.^[3] The meaning "prim, formal, pompous; conventional" is first found in Kipling in 1895;^[2][3] the New Partridge connects it with stuffed shirt.^[8] In American colloquial use stuffy meant "angry, sulky" from 1825;^[2][9] Bartlett (1848) recorded it in the United States as angry, sulky or obstinate, and in Scotland as stout, mettlesome or resolute.^[10] The sense of anger is part of a weak pattern, recorded from the first half of the 19th century, of describing anger in terms of solidity and density.^[11] In dialect the word was used in Westmorland, Yorkshire and Berkshire for being partly stopped up and short of breath, in Lancashire for fat and short-winded, and in Scotland for strong, sturdy and not easily giving up.^[12] In slang it has also meant "wealthy" (from 1936).^[9]

Timeline

• 1551 – full of stuff or substance (obsolete by 1667).^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1550s.^[3]
• 1813 – dull, lacking freshness or interest.^[2][3]
• 1825 – in the United States, angry, sulky.^[2][9]
• 1831 – of a room, badly ventilated; of air, close.^[2][3]
• 1847 – of a person, feeling blocked in the nose or chest.^[2]
• 1889 – of the voice, muffled.^[2]
• 1895 – prim, formal, pompous; conventional.^[2][3][8]
• 1936 – slang, wealthy.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lacking fresh air; badly ventilated and close: The meeting dragged on in a stuffy back room.^{[13][14][2][7]}
2. Of the nose or head, blocked, as with a cold.^[13][14][2]
3. Dull, staid and conventional; prim or pompous: a stuffy old club with strict rules.^[13][14][2]
4. (US, colloquial) Angry or sulky.^[7][2]
5. (obsolete, 1551–1667) Full of stuff or substance.^[2][7][4]

Word family

• stuffily
• stuffiness
• unstuffy

Related words

• stuffed shirt
• stuff

References

1. ^ 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 s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
9. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ Bartlett, John Russell (1848), Dictionary of Americanisms, New York: Bartlett and Welford
11. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin