stark
stark †hard, unyielding; †violent, severe OE.; (arch.) strong, stout XIII; (dial.) rigid, stiff; sheer, absolute XIV; naked XVIII. OE. stearc = OS., (O)HG. stark, (M)Du. sterk, ON. sterkr :- Gmc. *starkaz, the weak grade of the base being repr. by OHG. gistorchanēn grow rigid, Goth. gastaurknan dry up, ON. styrkr strong, strength. In s. blind (XV) and s. dead (XIV) used adv. for ‘quite’, from the sense ‘rigid’; similarly s. naked (XVI), for earlier (dial.) start naked (XIII) steort naket, f. †start (OE. steort) tail, as if orig. ‘naked even to the tail’.
More From encyclopedia.com
NEARBY TERMS
stark
