στόχος

Uncertain.

Beekes tentatively derives the word from Proto-Indo-European *stegʰ- (“bar, pillar, rod”), and compares Proto-Balto-Slavic *stagas, whence Proto-Slavic *stogъ (“haystack”) and Lithuanian stãgaras (“long thin stalk”), as well as Proto-Germanic *stangō (“bar, rod, stake”).^[1]

Other theories compare the word with στοῖχος (stoîkhos, “row in an ascending series, column”), στίχος (stíkhos, “row or file of soldiers, line of poetry, verse”), from στείχω (steíkhō, “walk, march, go or come, march in line or order”), from Proto-Indo-European *steygʰ- (“to walk”). If from this root, cognate with German steigen; English sty, stair, stile; and possibly Latin vestīgō. Compare also Proto-Germanic *stakkaz (“haystack”).

στόχος • (stókhos) m (genitive στόχου); second declension

1. pillar of brick
   1. Synonym of στοχάς (stokhás, “an erection of stone or wood for fixing net poles”)
   2. butt, target
   3. aim, aiming
   4. guess, conjecture

• στοχάζομαι (stokházomai)
  • στοχαστικός (stokhastikós)

• Greek: στόχος (stóchos)

• “στόχος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• στόχος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• “στόχος”, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

From Ancient Greek στόχος (stókhos).

στόχος • (stóchos) m (plural στόχοι)

1. (archery) target
2. aim, intent

• τέρμα n (térma)
• σκοπός m (skopós, “aim, target”)

• στόχαστρο n (stóchastro, “gunsight”)