stark

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: stärk, IPA^(key): /stɑɹk/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: stärk, IPA^(key): /stɑːk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)k
• Homophone: stock (non-rhotic with father-bother merger)

Etymology 1

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

stark (comparative starker, superlative starkest)

1. (obsolete) Hard, firm; obdurate.
2. Severe; violent; fierce (now usually in describing the weather).
   • 2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8835, page 80:

     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. (poetic, literary or archaic) Strong; vigorous; powerful.
   • c. 1622, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger [et al.?], “Beggars Bvsh”, in Comedies and Tragedies , London: Humphrey Robinson, , and for Humphrey Moseley , published 1647, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii:

     Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer.

   • 1805, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, , and A Constable and Co., , →OCLC:

     a stark, moss-trooping Scot

4. Stiff, rigid.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 44:

     His heauie head, deuoide of carefull carke, / Whose sences all were straight benumbd and starke.

   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff / Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies.

   • 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     The north is not so stark and cold.

5. Plain in appearance; barren, desolate.

   I picked my way forlornly through the stark, sharp rocks.

6. Naked.
   • 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. ”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. , volume I, London: Edward Moxon , published 1839, →OCLC, page 211:

     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.

   A flower was growing, in stark contrast, out of the sidewalk.

   • 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     Consider, first, the stark security / The commonwealth is in now.

   • 1689 (first published posthumously), John Selden, Table-Talk

     Rhetoric is very good or stark naught; there's no medium in rhetoric.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 17, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     Ramadans, and prolonged ham-squattings in cold, cheerless rooms were stark nonsense

Derived terms

• starken
• starkly
• starkness

Translations

Adverb

stark (not comparable)

1. starkly; entirely, absolutely

   He's gone stark, staring mad.

   She was just standing there, stark naked.

   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; , London: Iohn Williams , →OCLC:

     […] held him strangled in his arms till he was stark dead.

   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎:

     “… That woman is stark mad, Lord Stranleigh. Her own father recognised it when he bereft her of all power in the great business he founded. …”

Usage notes

In standard modern English, the adverb is essentially restricted to stark naked and phrases meaning "crazy" on the pattern of stark raving mad.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

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

stark (third-person singular simple present starks, present participle starking, simple past and past participle starked)

1. (obsolete or dialect) To stiffen.

Related terms

• starkish
• starkly
• starkers

Anagrams

• Karst, Trask, karst, karts, skart

German

Etymology

From Middle High German stark, from Old High German stark, from Proto-West Germanic *stark.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃtark/, , ,

• Audio

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

• Audio (Austria)

  (file)

• Homophone: stak (some speakers)

Adjective

stark (strong nominative masculine singular starker, comparative stärker, superlative am stärksten)

1. strong (intense, powerful, unyielding)
2. strong (having a high concentration of some ingredient, e.g. alcohol)

   Coordinate terms: gemischt, schwach

3. (of an action, especially sports) good, great, skilled
4. (colloquial, slightly dated) brilliant, awesome
5. (colloquial, dated) incredible, unbelievable

   ein starkes Stück ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   starker Tobak ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   • 1924, Thomas Mann, Der Zauberberg [The Magic Mountain], volume 1, Berlin: S. Fischer, page 69:

     Nun, es sind Eheleute, in Gottes Namen, soweit ist die Sache in Ordnung. Aber am hellen Morgen, das ist doch stark.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

6. (dated, euphemistic) overweight, fat
7. (grammar) strong (inflecting according to a pattern distinct from another called "weak")

Declension

Derived terms

• affenstark

Further reading

• “stark” in Duden online
• “stark” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• Friedrich Kluge (1883) “stark”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891

Kashubian

Etymology

Ultimately from Proto-Slavic *starъ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈstark/
• Syllabification: stark

Noun

stark m pers (female equivalent starka)

1. grandfather

   Synonyms: dżadek, ópa

Declension

Further reading

• “stark”, in Internetowi Słowôrz Kaszëbsczégò Jãzëka [Internet Dictionary of the Kashubian Language], Fundacja Kaszuby, 2022
• Eùgeniusz Gòłąbk (2011) “dziadek”, in Słownik Polsko-Kaszubski / Słowôrz Pòlskò-Kaszëbsczi‎

Low German

Etymology

Cognate with German stark, Dutch sterk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stark/, /staːk/

Adjective

stark (comparative starker, superlative starkst)

1. strong, powerful

Declension

Synonyms

• dull
• heftig
• hevig
• ossig
• slimm
• stevig
• dannig
• düchtig
• swied

Derived terms

• Starkde/Stärkde

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *starkuz, whence also Old English stearc, Old Norse sterkr.

Adjective

stark

1. strong

Derived terms

• starchī

Descendants

• German: stark
• Yiddish: שטאַרק (shtark)

Slovene

Noun

stark

1. genitive dual/plural of starka

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish starker, from Old Norse starkr, from Proto-Germanic *starkuz, from Proto-Indo-European *sterg-.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Adjective

stark (comparative starkare, superlative starkast)

1. strong; able to use great force
2. strong; capable of withstanding great (physical) force
3. strong; highly stimulating to the senses

   starkt ljus

   bright light

4. (of food) spicy, hot

   Nisses chili con carne är för stark för mig

   Nisse's chili con carne is too spicy for me

   världens starkaste chilipeppar

   the world's hottest chili pepper

5. strong; having a high concentration of an essential; possibly alcohol

   starkt kaffe

   strong coffee

6. (grammar) strong
7. (military) strong; not easily subdued or taken

Declension

Synonyms

• (able to use great force): kraftfull
• (capable of withstanding force): stadig
• (spicy): het
• (having intense odor or flavor): frän, skarp, stickande

Related terms

• styrka
• stärka
• styrkelyft
• starkt verb, stark böjning
• stor stark

See also

• oregelbundet verb

References

• stark in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• stark in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• stark in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

• raskt