English
stab
Stab comes from Middle English stabbe ‘a stab’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500stabbe‘a stab’
- Englishearliest quotation 1700stab
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500stabbe‘a stab’
- Englishearliest quotation 1700stab
Earliest quotation: 1700, John Dryden, Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.: “None shall dare / With shortened sword to stab…”
The story
First attested in Scottish English (compare Scots stob, stobbe, stabb (‘a pointed stick or stake; a thrust with a pointed weapon’)), from Middle English stabbe (‘a stab’), probably a variant of Middle English stob, stub, stubbe (‘pointed stick, stake, thorn, stub, stump’), from Old Norse stobbi, stubbi, cognate with Old English stybb. Supposed by some to derive from Scottish Gaelic stob (‘to prick, to prod, to push, to thrust’); supposed by others to be from a Scots word.
Every English word from Middle English stabbe
Today it means
noun An act of stabbing or thrusting with an object to hurt or kill someone.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English stabbe / stab