Steep & stoop
It seems reasonable that these words might come from the same root:
steep slope
steep the tea
steeple
stoop down
hang out on the stoop
However, only three of them share a root.
The verb steep (to soak in liquid) made its way into English in the early 1300s. Though nobody is certain of its source, it may have come from a Norse word meaning to pour.
The noun stoop (raised platform at the front or back of a house or apartment), appeared in English in 1755 from a Dutch word meaning a flight of steps.
The three words that share a source are the verb stoop, the adjective steep, & the noun steeple. They all come from a Proto-Indo-European word meaning to push or knock. A version of this root made its way into northern European languages meaning to bow or bend, & then into Old English as the verb stoop. Another form of this root came to mean high & lofty (possibly due to the idea that a mountain is pushed up from the surrounding soil). This form of the root found itself becoming both the adjective steep & the noun steeple.
It nearly causes one to want to stoop to steep one’s tea on one’s stoop, then climb up to enjoy the tea atop a steep steeple, eh?
In New England people always left their snowy boots on the back stoop (the kind you hang out on) and I always thought it must have something to do with bending over--maybe to take your boots off. But instead it's related to steeples? We have a funny language, Mr. Monger.
ReplyDeleteNothing like stooping on the stoop.
DeleteThe man climbed the steep steps to the stoop of the steeple then stooped to watch the tea steep. Crazy language indeed.
ReplyDeleteHey Christine - thanks for having some fun with these.
ReplyDelete