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Stark

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stark¹

  • /stɑɹk/ US
  • /stɑːk/ UK

Sounds like stock (non-rhotic, father-bother merger) · Rhymes with -ɑː(ɹ)k

Where it comes from

From Middle English stark, starc, from Old English stearc, starc (“stiff, rigid, unyielding, obstinate, hard, strong, severe, violent”), from Proto-West Germanic *stark, from Proto-Germanic *starkuz (“stiff, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian sterc (“strong”), Dutch sterk (“strong”), Low German sterk (“strong”), German stark (“strong”), Danish stærk (“strong”), Swedish stark (“strong”), Norwegian sterk (“strong”), Icelandic sterkur (“strong”). Related to starch.

In the phrase stark naked: an alternation of Middle English stert naked, from stert (“tail”), a literal parallel to the modern butt naked.

adjective starker · starkest

  1. obsolete Hard, firm; obdurate.
  2. Severe; violent; fierce (now usually in describing the weather). Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.
  3. archaic, literary, poetic Strong; vigorous; powerful. Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer.
  4. Stiff, rigid. His heauie head, deuoide of carefull carke, / Whose sences all were straight benumbd and starke.
  5. Plain in appearance; barren, desolate. I picked my way forlornly through the stark, sharp rocks.
  6. Naked. They bore me to a cavern in the hill Beneath that column, and unbound me there; And one did strip me stark; and one did fill A vessel from the putrid pool; one bare A lighted torch, and four with friendless care Guided my steps the cavern-paths along […]
  7. Complete, absolute, full. I screamed in stark terror.

adverb

  1. not comparable Starkly; entirely, absolutely. He's gone stark, staring mad.

stark²

  • /stɑɹk/ US
  • /stɑːk/ UK

Sounds like stock (non-rhotic, father-bother merger) · Rhymes with -ɑː(ɹ)k

Where it comes from

From Middle English starken, from Old English stearcian (“to stiffen, become hard, grow stiff or hard”), from Proto-Germanic *starkōną, *starkēną (“to stiffen, become hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with German erstarken (“to strengthen”).

verb starks · starking · starked

  1. dialectal, obsolete To stiffen.

Stark³

  • /stɑɹk/ US

Rhymes with -ɑː(ɹ)k

Where it comes from

* As a Scottish and English surname, from the adjective stark.

* As a Jewish, German, and Swedish surname, from stark (“strong”), related to the above. This surname also appears in Czech and Slovak as Štark.

proper noun Starks

  1. countable, uncountable A surname.
  2. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Butts County, Georgia.
  3. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Stark County, Illinois.
  4. countable, uncountable A tiny city in Neosho County, Kansas.
  5. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Elliott County, Kentucky.
  6. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Pike County, Missouri.
  7. countable, uncountable A small town in Coos County, New Hampshire.
  8. countable, uncountable A small town in Herkimer County, New York, named after John Stark.
  9. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Boone County, West Virginia.
  10. countable, uncountable A small town in Vernon County, Wisconsin.

noun

  1. uncountable The language spoken in the Ender's Game series, which is nearly identical to American English.

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