stout
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /staʊt/
ipa: /stʌʊt/
rhymes: -aʊt
Forms: form: stouter
form: stoutest
Etymology: From Middle English stoute, from Old French estout (“brave, fierce, proud”) (Modern French dialectal stout (“proud”)), from earlier Old French estolt (“strong”), from Frankish *stolt, *stult (“bold, proud”), from Proto-Germanic *stultaz (“bold, proud”), from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to put, stand”).
Cognate with Dutch stout (“stout, bold, naughty”), Low German stolt (“stately, proud”), German stolz (“proud, haughty, arrogant, stately”), Old Norse stoltr (“proud”) (Danish stolt (“proud”), Icelandic stoltur (“proud”)).
Meaning "strong in body, powerfully built" is attested from First attested in c. 1386, but has been to a large extent displaced by the euphemistic meaning "thick-bodied, fat and large," which is first recorded 1804. Original sense preserved in stout-hearted (1552).
The noun "strong, dark-brown beer" is first recorded 1677, from the adjective.
Senses: examples: text: Yossarian walked out of the office and down the stairs into the dark, tomblike street, passing in the hall the stout woman with warts and two chins, who was already on her way back in.
ref: 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Eternal City”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 427:
synonyms: thickset
corpulent
fat
glosses: Large; bulky.
raw_tags: of a person
examples: text: Art thou but Captaine of a thouſand horſe,
That by Characters grauen in thy browes,
And by thy martiall face and ſtout aſpect,
Deſeru’ſt to haue the leading of an hoſte?
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
text: a stouter champion never handled sword.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:
text: He quickly lost the character of a bold, stout, magnanimous man.
ref: (Can we date this quote?), Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641, Oxford: The Theater:
text: The lords all stand / To clear their cause, most resolutely stout.
ref: 1609, Samuel Daniel, The Civile Wares:
synonyms: lusty
vigorous
robust
sinewy
muscular
glosses: Bold, strong-minded.
examples: text: Your words have been stout against me.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Malachi 3:13:
text: Commonly […] they that be rich are lofty and stout.
ref: 1552, Hugh Latimer, The Fifth Sermon Preached on the Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Trinity, 1552:
synonyms: arrogant
hard
haughty
glosses: Proud; haughty.
examples: text: he had reason to be extremely grateful to Sterling, his Manchester City teammate, who won and converted the penalty that appeared to have broken Iceland’s stout resistance.
ref: 2020 September 5, David Hytner, “Raheem Sterling keeps his cool to see off Iceland amid blaze of late drama”, in The Guardian:
text: So, Andover featured in the Glorious Revolution, which involved the deposition of Catholic fraterniser James II and his replacement by stout Protestants William and Mary.
ref: 2023 June 28, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: Alton to Exeter”, in RAIL, number 986, page 58:
glosses: Firm; resolute; dauntless.
examples: text: Campers prefer stout vessels, sticks and cloth.
text: […] Pipes, who acted as the enemy's forlorn hope, advanced to the gate with great intrepidity, and clapping his foot to the door, which was none of the ſtouteſt, with the execution and diſpatch of a petard, ſplit it into a thouſand pieces.
ref: 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, “He is Concerned in a Dangerous Adventure with a Certain Gardener; […]”, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume I, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC, page 134:
text: Nothing could be more business-like than the construction of the stout dams, and nothing more gently rural than the limpid lakes, with the grand old forest trees marshalled round their margins … .
ref: 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
glosses: Materially strong, enduring.
glosses: Obstinate.
Derived terms: midstout
stouten
stouthearted
stoutish
stoutly
stoutness