step-

English

Etymology

From Middle English step-, from Old English stēop- (“deprived of a relative, step-”, prefix), from Proto-West Germanic *steupa-, from Proto-Germanic *steupa- (“orphaned, step-”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp- (“to push, strike”).

Cognate with Scots step- (“step-”), West Frisian stiep- (“step-”), Dutch stief- (“step-”), Low German steef- (“step-”), German stief- (“step-”), Swedish styv- (“step-”), Icelandic stjúp- (“step-”). Related to Old English stīepan (“to deprive, bereave”). Not, however, related to the familiar English noun or verb step.

Prefix

step-

1. A prefix used before father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, child, and so forth, to indicate that the person being identified is not a blood relative but is related through the marriage of a parent.

Derived terms

Translations

References

• “step-”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• EPTs, ESTP, PETs, Pest, Sept, Sept., TPEs, Teps, pest, pets, sept, sept-, spet

Middle English

Alternative forms

• stip-, styp-, ste-, steppe-, stappe-, steop-

Etymology

From Old English stēop- (“deprived of a relative, step-”, prefix), from Proto-West Germanic *steupa-, from Proto-Germanic *steupa- (“orphaned, step-”).

The short vowel is due to regular shortening of long vowels before consonant clusters in Early Middle English. All of the words that stēop- was prefixed to in Old English were consonant-initial, so shortening occurred exceptionlessly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɛp-/

Prefix

step-

1. step- (related through the marriage of a parent)

Derived terms

Descendants

• English: step-
• Scots: step-, stap-

References

• “step-, combining element”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.