Sty Definition

stī
stied, sties, styes, stying
noun
sties
A pigsty.
American Heritage
A pen for pigs.
Webster's New World
Any foul or filthy place.
Webster's New World
A small, inflamed swelling of a sebaceous gland on the rim of an eyelid.
Webster's New World

(UK, dialectal) A ladder.

Wiktionary
Synonyms:
verb
sties, stying
To lodge in or as in a sty.
Webster's New World
To live in a sty, or any messy or dirty place.
Wiktionary
1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.xi.
The beast impatient of his smarting wound, / And of so fierce and forcible despight, / Thought with his wings to stye aboue the ground [...].
Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Sty

Noun

Singular:
sty
Plural:
sties

Origin of Sty

  • From Middle English sty, from Old English stÄ«, stiÄ¡ (“sty, pen, a wooden enclosure; hall", chiefly in compounds), from Proto-Germanic *stijÄ…. Cognate with German Steige (“hen-coop"), Danish sti (“enclosure for swine, sheep, hens, etc."), Swedish stia (“sty for pigs, geese, etc."), Norwegian sti (“flock of sheep"), Icelandic stía (“a kennel").

    From Wiktionary

  • From Middle English stien, stiȝen, from Old English stÄ«Ä¡an (“to go; ascend, mount"), from Proto-Germanic *stÄ«ganÄ…, from Proto-Indo-European *steygÊ°-. Cognate with Dutch stijgen, German steigen, Swedish stiga, Old Norse stíga.

    From Wiktionary

  • Probably a back-formation from styany, mistaken for "sty-on-eye" but correctly from Middle English styany, composed of styan ("sty"; from Old English stÄ«Ä¡ende, present participle of stÄ«gan (“to rise")) + y (“eye").

    From Wiktionary

  • Alteration of Middle English styanye styan sty (from Old English stīgend) (from present participle of stīgan to rise steigh- in Indo-European roots) eye, ye eye eye

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Middle English from Old English stig

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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