Thanks to visit codestin.com
Credit goes to www.etymonline.com

Advertisement

Origin and history of stool

stool(n.)

Middle English stōl, from Old English stol "seat for one person," from Proto-Germanic *stōla- (source also of Old Frisian stol, Old Norse stoll, Old High German stuol, German Stuhl "seat," Gothic stols "high seat, throne"), from PIE *sta-lo-, locative of root *sta- "to stand, make or be firm" (source also of Lithuanian pa-stolas "stand," Old Church Slavonic stolu "stool").

The English word was originally used of thrones (as in cynestol "royal seat, throne") and in early Middle English still of episcopal seats and sees and judicial benches. Its decline in sense began with adoption of chair (n.) from French. After 14c. this relegated stool to small seats without arms or backs (attested also from late Old English), sometimes a piece of wood mounted on three legs, or to "privy" (early 15c.) and thence to "bowel movement" (1530s).

Entries linking to stool

chair(n.)

"a seat with a back, intended for one person," early 13c., chaere, from Old French chaiere "chair, seat, throne" (12c.; Modern French chaire "pulpit, throne;" the humbler sense having gone since 16c. with the variant form chaise), from Latin cathedra "seat" (see cathedral).

The figurative sense of "seat of office or authority" (c. 1300) originally was in reference to bishops and professors. The meaning "office of a professor" (1816) is extended from the seat from which a professor lectures (mid-15c.). The meaning "seat of a person presiding at meeting" is from 1640s. As short for electric chair from 1900. Chair-rail "strip or board of wood fastened to a wall at such a height as to prevent the plaster from being scraped by the backs of chairs" is from 1822.

barstool(n.)

also bar-stool, bar stool, "tall, padded stool for customers at a bar," 1910, from bar (n.2) + stool.

Advertisement

Trends of stool

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

More to explore

toadstool
late 14c., apparently just what it looks like: a fanciful name from Middle English tadde "toad" (see toad) + stole "stool" (see stool). Toads themselves were regarded as highly poisonous, and this word is "popularly restricted to poisonous or inedible fungi, as distinct from edib
toilet
1530s, earliest in English in an obsolete sense "cover or bag for clothes," from French toilette "a cloth; a bag for clothes," diminutive of toile "cloth, net" (see toil (n.2)). Toilet acquired an association with upper class dressing by 18c., through the specific sense "a fine c
can
Old English 1st and 3rd person singular present indicative of cunnan "to know," less commonly as an auxiliary, "have power to, to be able," (also "have carnal knowledge"), from Proto-Germanic *kunnjanan "be mentally able, have learned" (source also of Old Norse kenna "become acqu
shambles
"meat or fish market," early 15c., from schamil "table, stall for vending" (c. 1300), from Old English scamol, scomul "stool...Compare Old Saxon skamel "stool," Middle Dutch schamel, Old High German scamel, German schemel, Danish skammel "footstool...All these represent an early Proto-Germanic borrowing from Latin scamillus "low stool, a little bench," which is ultimately...a diminutive of scamnum "stool, bench," from a PIE root *skmbh- "to prop up, support."...
buffet
1718, "cupboard, sideboard, etc., to hold china plates, etc.," from French bufet "bench, stool, sideboard" (12c.), which...The French word was borrowed in Middle English in the sense "low stool" (early 15c.) but became obsolete....
paddock
Paddock-stool was an old name for a toadstool (mid-15c.)....
siege
early 13c., segge, "a seat, chair, stool; ceremonial seat of a king," senses now obsolete, from Old French siege, sege "seat...
eliminate
1560s, "to thrust out, remove, throw out of doors," from Latin eliminatus, past participle of eliminare "thrust out of doors, expel," from ex limine "off the threshold," from ex "off, out" (see ex-) + limine, ablative of limen "threshold" (see limit (n.)). Used literally at first
lure
early 14c., "something which allures or entices, an attraction" (a figurative use), originally the name of a device for recalling a hawk, from Anglo-French lure, Old French loirre "device used to recall hawks, lure," from Frankish *lothr or some other Germanic source, from Proto-
rule
c. 1200, "principle or maxim governing conduct, formula to which conduct must be conformed" from Old French riule, Norman reule "rule, custom, (religious) order" (in Modern French partially re-Latinized as règle), from Vulgar Latin *regula, from Latin regula "straight stick, bar,

Share stool

Advertisement
Trending
Dictionary entries near stool
Advertisement