stith

• IPA^(key): /stɪθ/

From Middle English stith, from Old Norse steði. Compare stithy.

stith (plural stiths)

1. (obsolete) An anvil; a stithy.
   • 1584, Robert Greene, the Card of Fancy:

     strike on the stith while the iron was hot

From Middle English stith (“steady, strong, cruel”), from Old English stīþ (“hard, cruel”), from Proto-West Germanic *stinþ, from Proto-Germanic *stinþaz. Compare also Old Frisian stīth, Middle Low German stīde, Middle Dutch stīde, Old Norse stinnr, Danish stind, Swedish stinn.

stith (comparative more stith, superlative most stith)

1. (UK, dialect, obsolete) strong; stiff; rigid

• Hitts, histt.

Inherited from Old English stīþ, from Proto-West Germanic *stinþ, from Proto-Germanic *stinþaz.

• stið, stithe, stiþ, styth, stythe, styþ

• IPA^(key): /stiːθ/

stith (plural and weak singular stithe)

1. Stiff, steady, stable; not pliable.
2. Strong, brave; having strength.
3. Mighty, flourishing, profuse; indicative of wealth.
4. Severe, intense, powerful; having intensity.
5. Merciless, unforgiving; showing no quarter.

• English: stith (dialectal)
• Scots: styth

• “stīth(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Borrowed from Old Norse steði, *steð; the vocalism in /i/ may be due to influence from smyth and smythy. Doublet of stithy.

• steyth, stiþ, styth, stythe

• IPA^(key): /stiθ/

stith (plural stithes)

1. anvil (iron block for shaping metal)

   Synonyms: anvelt, stithy

• English: stith (obsolete)

• “stīth(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Proto-Germanic root related to *stadiz and akin to Old Norse steði (“anvil”). Akin to Old English stīþ (“hard, cruel”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈstiːθ/

stīth

1. strong

• Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009) An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN
• “stithy”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.