Etymograph

English

sea stack

Sea stack comes from Middle English stak ‘a heap, pile, stack’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)teg-root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350stakkr‘a heap, pile’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500stak‘a heap, pile, stack’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1854sea stack

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)teg-root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350stakkr‘a heap, pile’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500stak‘a heap, pile, stack’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1854sea stack

Earliest quotation: 1854, Notes on Books: “The sea-gull sprang upwards from where he had floated…”

A compound of sea + stack ‘a heap, pile’

Proto-Germanic *saiwiz ‘sea, lake’

Proto-West Germanic *saiwi ‘body of water’

Old English sǣ

Middle English see ‘sea’

English sea

Proto-Indo-European *stogʰ-

Proto-Germanic *stakkaz ‘a barn’

Old Norse stakkr ‘a barn’

Middle English stack

English stack

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg-

detective, detection, detect, tile, thug, sauna, protégé, toga, thatch, toque, staccato, 27 more

Today it means

noun A pillar of rock that rises from the ocean, formed by surrounding softer ground eroding away.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- / sea stack

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