Wordwyrt

stickleback

Meaningspiny fish

Common meaning: small fish with spines on its back

Journey through time

  1. Aryan root · reconstructed√STIG‘stick or pierce, to sting, prick’No written record; from Skeat’s list of Aryan roots, no. 428, p. 745 · scan
  2. Old EnglishsticelsourceB&T
  3. Middle Englishstykylbak‘spiny fish’source
  4. Englishstickleback‘small fish with spines on its back’ · today

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: not available. Respelling: generated.
  • US IPA: not available. Respelling: generated.

Origin: Built on Old English sticel ‘spiny fish’.

Did you know: our wording, based on Skeat, Etymological Dictionary (1898), entry STICKLEBACK, p. 597 · dictionary scan

Roots

  • sticel Old English “spiny fish”

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