English
kick up a stew
Kick up a stew comes from English stew ‘(cloud of) dust’.
- English1500–presentstew‘(cloud of) dust’
- Englishearliest quotation 1898kick up a stew
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- English1500–presentstew‘(cloud of) dust’
- Englishearliest quotation 1898kick up a stew
Earliest quotation: 1898, James Riley, Songs of Two Peoples: “But if you come to the United States to…”
Made of the words kick + up + a + stew
Proto-Germanic *kaikaz ‘bent backwards’
Old Norse kikna ‘to sink at the knees’
Middle English kyken ‘to strike out with the foot’
English kick
Proto-Germanic *upp ‘up’
Proto-West Germanic *upp
Old English upp
Middle English up ‘to a vertical axis’
English up
Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos ‘one’
Proto-Germanic *ainaz ‘one’
Proto-West Germanic *ain ‘one’
Old English ān ‘one; a certain’
Middle English a
English a
Every English word from English stew
Today it means
verb To cause trouble; cause a dust-up; cause a hubbub.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / English stew / kick up a stew