Language Of Confusion: Stalled, Part I

There’s a weird number of words related to this one that you wouldn’t think. All are descended from the Proto Indo European root stel-, to stand or to put in order, two meanings you wouldn’t think actually go together but it does kind of make sense.
 
Stall is one of those words with a lot of different definitions, like a physical stall where you sell goods, or stalling someone, an engine getting stalled, and somehow they are all from the same word. The first one to show up was a stall like you would put animals, sometime before something stalling out, which showed up in the mid fifteenth century. It comes from the Middle English stalle, from the Old English steall, a standing place to catch fish. That’s from the Proto Germanic stalli-, which is thought to be from stel-, so a standing place to catch fish became a stall, and that changed into all those other definitions.
 
Plus there are other words related to stall. Did you know stallion is from stall? It showed up in the mid fifteenth century, though it also showed up earlier as staloun, coming from: the Anglo French estaloun, Old French estalon, Frankish stal, Old High German stal (which means stable), and Proto Germanic stol-. And that’s from stel-. Funny how stallions go in stalls, but the words have diverging etymologies. As for install, which you would think would be related, there’s no real evidence of it. Install is Latin in origin, and while Latin might have taken it from a Germanic language, there’s no clear word it came from, including stall’s origin words. I mean, it makes sense and it probably is related, but maybe not???
 
Back to words that are definitely from stel-. Still comes from the Old English stille, which just means still, so no big WTF leaps. That’s from the Proto Germanic stilli-, from the PIE stel-ni-, which is a form of stel-. Straight to the point there.
 
Then there’s stale. Makes sense, stale things stand for too long. It showed up in the fourteenth century meaning… alcohol that stood long enough that it’s now free from dregs. It didn’t mean something old until the mid sixteenth century! And of course it was Shakespeare who started it to mean something that’s gone stale by being laid out for too long. Stale actually comes from the Old French estale, settled or clear, from estal, a fixed position, form the Frankish stal-, Proto Germanic stol-, and so from stel-. If it wasn’t for Shakespeare immortalizing the slang of the time, stale would only have to do with alcohol clearing up! How does this word make less sense now?
 
Finally today, stalk. Like the stalk of a plant, not stalking after someone (that’s thought to be related to steal). A plant stalk showed up in the early fourteenth century, and that’s thought to be from the Middle English stale (I don’t think that’s even related to stale!), and before that the Old English stalu, the wooden part of a tool. It’s from the Proto Germanic stalla-, which is from the PIE stol-no-, from stel-. I really can’t see that one, but somehow it’s supposed to be true.
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
University of Texas at Arlington
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
Old English-English Dictionary
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Fordham University

Language of Confusion: Full Stop

And now, to complete our sorta trilogy on speed related etymology, here’s stop words.

Stop

Stop showed up as a noun in the late fourteenth century (where it meant a plug before stopping in general) and as a verb sometime before that. It comes from the Old English stoppian, stop or close, which is a West Germanic word that’s popped up in other Germanic languages. As for before that, it might be from the Vulgar Latin stuppare (to stop or stuff with tow) and classical Latin stupa, tow. Um, that’s tow like rope fiber. No, I had never heard that before either. Nor is it related to the other kind of two.

Stall

Stall has kind of a funny history. It showed up in the fifteenth century, coming from the Old English steall, a place to catch fish or an animal stall or the Old French estale. Steall comes from the Proto Germanic stal and Proto Indo European stel-, to put or stand. The funny part’s coming up, I swear. See, it’s in the way stall evolved in English. In the late sixteenth century it became to distract someone so a pickpocket could steal from them (like a decoy), and then later in the nineteenth century that evolved into a story to avoid doing something, like stalling someone. Come on! That’s funny!

Break

Break, which I alluded to last week, showed up as a noun in the fourteenth century and a verb sometime before that. It comes from the Old English brecan, to separate into two or more pieces, as well as things like shatter, destroy, and smash. It comes from the Proto Germanic brekan and Proto Indo European bhreg-, to break. Of course, the break we’re looking at is supposed to be the one that means resting. Well, that definition didn’t show up until 1861, meant an interval between lessons at school. So…school gave us breaks. Was it worth it? No. Definitely not.

Halt

Halt had several definitions over the years. The stop version didn’t show up until the late sixteenth century, and weirdly enough it doesn’t seem to be related to the two other versions of the world, which means lame or to limp (ever heard someone having a halting gait? That’s where it’s from). Stop halt comes from the French halte, halt, which then came from the Old High German halten, to hold. The origin word for hold. And it’s definitely not related to the other halt, which has a totally different history. What the hell.

Stay

Stay is another one with a lot of meanings that we don’t use anymore that may or may not be related. There was one that was a support or brace, which is related to another one that is a rope on a ship’s mast, both of which come from the Proto Germanic stagaz and Proto Indo European stak-. There’s also another one that’s more relevant to the subject this week, showing up in the mid fifteenth century from the Old French estai-/estare, to stay or sand. It comes from the classical Latin stare, to stand, and before that the Proto Indo European sta-, stand or make firm. Which might be related to stak. They aren’t sure, but it would make sense considering they both have stand definitions.

TL;DR: What the hell stop words. I had hoped you would make sense. You disappoint me.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

Omniglot

Dictionary.com

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

University of Texas at Arlington

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

Old English-English Dictionary

Encyclopaedia Britannica