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stump

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Pronunciation

stump1 remaining part of a tree or limb

Etymology

The tree stump is inherited from Middle English stumpe, also stompe,[2][3] borrowed from Middle Low German stump, or Middle Dutch stomp, or a native word cognate with them;[4][5][6][2] the Low German and Dutch nouns are substantive uses of an adjective meaning mutilated, blunt, dull.[4][5] Cognates include Old High German stumpf, modern German Stumpf,[7][4][8] Old Norse stumpr, Danish stump and Swedish stump.[8][5] They go back to Proto-Germanic *stumpaz, both a noun meaning stump and an adjective meaning mutilated.[9] Barnhart traces the group to an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *stemb-,[7] and Klein relates it to stamp and to stumbal (“mutilated”), the source of Stummel (“stub, piece cut off”);[8] Etymonline notes that Boutkan finds the older Indo-European reconstruction unlikely and gives the group no Indo-European etymology.[5] The verb, stumpen (“to stumble”), is recorded about a century before the noun.[7][4] Most dictionaries derive it from the noun,[4][6][10] but Barnhart thinks the late record of the noun supports taking it as a variant of the verb stamp,[7] and Etymonline allows for a route through Old Norse or an unrecorded Old English word.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb, to stumble over a tree stump or other obstacle: about 1250, in The Owl and the Nightingale.[4][7] The noun is first recorded for the part of a cut-off arm or leg that remains, probably about 1350 according to Barnhart[7] and in Joseph of Arimathie (about 1390) in the OED;[4][2] Etymonline finds the word implied in surnames from the late 13th century.[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The tree stump is recorded from about 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum,[4][7][2] and by the early 15th century the noun was used for the remaining part of anything worn down or broken off:[5] the stub of a broken tooth (about 1430),[4][2] the end of a burnt-down candle,[2] and in 1516 a worn-down pencil, quill or the like.[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the part of any solid body remaining after the rest is taken away".[11] The jocular use for a leg, as in to stir one's stumps, is recorded before 1500.[4][12] The verb lost its first sense, to stumble, by the early 17th century, having meant since 1600 to walk clumsily or heavily, as if on a wooden leg.[4][7][12] In cricket the stumps of the wicket date from the 18th century,[13] and the verb for putting a batter out by breaking the wicket from 1789.[4] The verb to stump, to dare or challenge, is recorded in American English from 1766,[5][14] and the sense "to baffle" from 1807, implied in stumper,[5] or 1812 according to Barnhart;[7] Word Origins thinks it came from the stumps that stop a plough in newly cleared land.[12][5] Making political speeches is called stumping because a candidate in rural America would use a tree stump as a platform.[12][7][15] Popik cites stump speech from 1810,[16] Barnhart notes stump orator in Jefferson's writings in 1813, and the verb is recorded from 1838.[7][5] Up a stump, perplexed, is American slang from 1829.[4] To stump up, to pay, is recorded in a Craven dialect glossary in 1828,[4] and in slang from 1810;[14] Word Origins explains it from stump in the sense "to dig up by the roots".[12] In Australia beyond the black stump, beyond the settled districts, dates from the late 19th century, from a fire-blackened stump used as a landmark in giving directions.[12]

Timeline

  • c. 1250 – verb, to stumble over a stump or other obstacle (obsolete by 1607).[4][7]
  • c. 1350 – noun, the remaining part of a cut-off limb.[7][4]
  • c. 1430 – the stub of a broken tooth.[4]
  • c. 1440 – the part of a felled tree left in the ground.[4][7]
  • before 1500 – jocularly, a leg.[4]
  • 1516 – a pencil, quill or the like worn down to a stub.[4]
  • 1596 – verb, to reduce to a stump.[4]
  • 1600 – verb, to walk clumsily or heavily.[4][7]
  • 1766 – verb, to dare or challenge.[5][14]
  • 1789 – in cricket, to put out a batter by breaking the wicket.[4]
  • 1807 – verb, to baffle (implied in stumper).[5]
  • 1810 – stump speech.[16]
  • 1829 – up a stump, perplexed.[4]
  • 1838 – verb, to go about making political speeches.[5][7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The part of a tree trunk left in the ground after the tree has been cut down or has fallen: We sat on an old oak stump to eat lunch.[17][3][18]
  2. The part of a limb, tooth, pencil or the like that remains after the rest has been cut off, broken off or worn away.[17][3][18]
  3. (informal, humorous) A leg, as in to stir one's stumps, to get moving.[17][4]
  4. In cricket, one of the three upright sticks that, with the bails, make up a wicket.[17][3]
  5. A place or occasion for political speeches, as in on the stump, campaigning by making speeches.[3][18]
  6. A heavy, clumsy step or tread.[18][6]
  7. (US, informal) A dare or challenge.[3][6]

Verb

  1. To baffle or perplex: The final question stumped every contestant.[3][18]
  2. To travel through an area making political speeches; to campaign.[3][18]
  3. To walk heavily or clumsily: He stumped off down the hall.[3][4]
  4. In cricket, to put out a batter who is out of the crease by breaking the wicket with the ball.[3][4]
  5. To cut down to a stump; to truncate.[3][4]
  6. To clear land of stumps.[3][4][18]
  7. (US) To stub one's toe or foot.[18][3]
  8. to stump up (British, informal): to pay, often unwillingly.[4][14]
  9. (obsolete, 1250–1607) To stumble over an obstacle.[4][6]

Word family

  • stumper
  • stumpy
  • stumpiness
  • stumpage
  • stumpless

stump2 drawing tool for blending

Etymology

The drawing tool is probably borrowed from French estompe,[6][3][4] with its form influenced by stump1.[6][4] The OED calls its history obscure, but notes that the late appearance of the English word suggests an adaptation of the much older French synonym, which with the verb estomper appears before 1700 in a treatise on painting by De la Hire.[4] According to Merriam-Webster the French word is from West Flemish stomp (“stub”), from Middle Dutch stompe;[3] Klein takes the English word from the Flemish forms stump or stomp, possibly through French.[8] The Middle Dutch word is a cognate of the tree stump.[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A short roll of paper or soft leather, cut to a point, used for shading drawings: 1778, in the Encyclopædia Britannica.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb, to tone or shade a drawing with a stump, followed in 1807, in John Landseer's Lectures on Engraving;[4][3] the OED takes it from estomper, while the Shorter Oxford forms it from the noun after the French verb.[4][6] Later stumps were also made of rubber, cork or felt.[4][17][3]

Timeline

  • 1778 – noun, a roll of paper or leather for shading drawings.[4][3]
  • 1807 – verb, to shade a drawing with a stump.[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A short cylinder of tightly rolled paper, soft leather or felt, pointed at the ends, used to blend or shade a drawing in pencil, charcoal, crayon or pastel.[3][17][6]

Verb

  1. To shade or blend a drawing with a stump.[3][6]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 v w Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ 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 40 41 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  16. ^ a b Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Stump Speech", 17 November 2011
  17. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin