sty
/staɪ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.47 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An inflammation of the eyelid.
Example Sentences
- "To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty."
- "and here you sty me In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me The rest o' the island"
- "The beast impatient of his smarting wound, / And of so fierce and forcible despight, / Thought with his wings to stye aboue the ground [...]."
- "From this lower tract he dared to stie up to the clowdes."
- "Led along, as some Creatures are, by the Noses, and voluntarily hood-winked; or like seeled Doves, sty up, you know not whither, nor how far."
- "That she might sty to the seat of Beatifick Mirth."
Etymology
From Middle English sty, from Old English stī, stiġ (“sty, pen, a wooden enclosure; hall”, chiefly in compounds), from Proto-West Germanic *stī, from Proto-Germanic *stiją. Cognate with German Stiege (“wooden crate”), dialectal German Steige (“hen-coop”), Danish sti (“sty, enclosure for swine, sheep, hens, etc.”), Swedish stia (“sty for pigs, geese, etc.”), Norwegian sti (“flock of sheep”), Icelandic stía (“a kennel”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: sty, stī, *stī, *stiją, *steygʰ-, stien
Usage
- Transitive verb
- Obsolete
- British usage