Etymology 1
From Middle English sty, from Old English stī, stiġ (“sty, pen, a wooden enclosure; hall”, chiefly in compounds), 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”).
Noun
sty (plural sties or styes)
- A pen or enclosure for swine.
- (figurative) A messy, dirty or debauched place.
1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.
Translations
enclosure for swine
- Bulgarian: кочина (bg) (kočina)
- Czech: chlívek m
- Danish: sti (da) c, svinesti c
- Dutch: varkensstal (nl) m
- Faroese: stíggjur m
- Finnish: sikolätti (fi)
- French: porcherie (fr) f
- Hungarian: disznóól (hu)
- Irish: cró muc m, cró muice m
- Italian: porcile (it) m
- Japanese: 豚舎 (ja) (とんしゃ, tonsha), 豚小屋 (ja) (ぶたごや, butagoya)
- Latin: hara f
- Latvian: cūkkūts f, cūku kūts f
- Macedonian: ко́чина f (kóčina), сви́њарник m (svínjarnik)
- Maori: rāihe, pākoro, pākorokoro
- Ottoman Turkish: طوڭوزلق (doñuzluk)
- Polish: chlew (pl) m
- Portuguese: chiqueiro (pt) m, pocilga (pt) f
- Romanian: cocină (ro) f
- Russian: хлев (ru) m (xlev), свина́рник (ru) m (svinárnik)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Roman: svinjac (sh) m
- Slovak: krmník m
- Spanish: pocilga (es) f
- Swedish: stia (sv), svinstia (sv)
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Verb
sty (third-person singular simple present sties, present participle stying, simple past and past participle stied)
- (transitive) To place in, or as if in, a sty.
1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o' the island
- (transitive) To live in a sty, or any messy or dirty place.
Etymology 2
From Middle English stien, stiȝen, stighen, from Old English stīgan (“to go; ascend, mount”), from Proto-West Germanic *stīgan, from Proto-Germanic *stīganą, from Proto-Indo-European *steygʰ-. Cognate with Dutch stijgen, German steigen, Danish stige, Norwegian Bokmål stige, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish stiga, Old Norse stíga.
Verb
sty (third-person singular simple present sties, present participle stying, simple past and past participle stied)
- (obsolete) To ascend, rise up, climb. [9th–17th c.]
1621, Richard Montague, Diatribae upon the first part of the late History of Tithes: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.
1652, Edward Benlowes, Theophila, or Love's Sacrifice:That she might sty to the seat of Beatifick Mirth.