stick: Stick ‘piece of wood’ [OE] and stick ‘fix, adhere’ [OE] come from the same Germanic source: the base *stik-, *stek-, *stak- ‘pierce, prick, be sharp’ (which also produced English attach, stake, stitch, stockade, and stoke). This in turn went back to the Indo-European base *stig-, *steig-, whose other descendants include Greek stígma (source of English stigma) and Latin stīgāre ‘prick, incite’ (source of English instigate [16]) and stinguere ‘prick’ (source of English distinct, extinct, and instinct).
From the Germanic base was derived a verb, source of English stick, which originally meant ‘pierce’. The notion of ‘piercing’ led on via ‘thrusting something sharp into something’ and ‘becoming fixed in something’ to ‘adhering’. The same base produced the noun *stikkon, etymologically a ‘pointed’ piece of wood, for piercing, which has become English stick.
Yet another derivative of the base was Old English sticels ‘spine, prickle’, which forms the first element of the fish-name stickleback [15] – etymologically ‘prickly back’. => attach, distinct, extinct, instigate, instinct, stake, stigma, stimulate, stitch, stockade, stoke, style
stick (n.)
Old English sticca "rod, twig, peg; spoon," from Proto-Germanic *stikkon- "pierce, prick" (cognates: Old Norse stik, Middle Dutch stecke, stec, Old High German stehho, German Stecken "stick, staff"), from PIE *steig- "to stick; pointed" (see stick (v.)). Meaning "staff used in a game" is from 1670s (originally billiards); meaning "manual gearshift lever" first recorded 1914. Alliterative connection of sticks and stones is recorded from mid-15c.; originally "every part of a building." Stick-bug is from 1870, American English; stick-figure is from 1949.
stick (v.)
Old English stician "to pierce, stab, transfix, goad," also "to remain embedded, stay fixed, be fastened," from Proto-Germanic *stik- "pierce, prick, be sharp" (cognates: Old Saxon stekan, Old Frisian steka, Dutch stecken, Old High German stehhan, German stechen "to stab, prick"), from PIE *steig- "to stick; pointed" (cognates: Latin instigare "to goad," instinguere "to incite, impel;" Greek stizein "to prick, puncture," stigma "mark made by a pointed instrument;" Old Persian tigra- "sharp, pointed;" Avestan tighri- "arrow;" Lithuanian stingu "to remain in place;" Russian stegati "to quilt").
Figurative sense of "to remain permanently in mind" is attested from c. 1300. Transitive sense of "to fasten (something) in place" is attested from late 13c. Stick out "project" is recorded from 1560s. Slang stick around "remain" is from 1912; stick it as a rude item of advice is first recorded 1922. Related: Stuck; sticking. Sticking point, beyond which one refuses to go, is from 1956; sticking-place, where any thing put will stay is from 1570s. Modern use generally is an echo of Shakespeare.
雙語例句
1. But legal experts are not sure if such a charge can stick.
但法律專家們不能肯定這一指控是否成立。
來自柯林斯例句
2. She poked and shifted things with the tip of her walking stick.
她用手杖尖翻撥挪動東西。
來自柯林斯例句
3. There are interesting hikes inland, but most ramblers stick to the clifftops.
內陸地區有一些很有意思的徒步遠足路線，但多數徒步者都去爬懸崖陡壁。
來自柯林斯例句
4. I tend to stick to fresh fruit for pudding.
我一直堅持用新鮮水果做甜點。
來自柯林斯例句
5. He gave the donkey a whack across the back with his stick.