stork’s bill, a gesture of scorn; ‘This sanna, or stork’s bill’, B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Amorphus). Cp. L. ciconia, (1) a stork; (2) a derisory bending of the fingers in form of a stork’s bill (Persius).
stound, stownd, time, occasion, moment. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 38; Shep. Kal., Oct., 49. The ‘Glosse’ to Shep. Kal., May, 257, has ‘stounds, fittes’, i.e. attacks of illness. In prov. use (EDD.). ME. stounde, hour, time (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1212), OE. stund. See [stowne].
stoup, a stoop, a low bow, a condescending movement. B. Jonson, Alchem. iv. 2 (Face); ‘Now observe the stoops, The bendings, and the falls’, id., Sejanus, i. 1 (Silius).
stour, stowre, a conflict, battle, contest; trouble, confusion, disturbance; danger, peril. The word is used in all these meanings by Spenser: F. Q. i. 2. 7; i. 3. 30; i. 4. 46; iii. 1. 34; iii. 2. 6; iii. 3. 50; Shep. Kal., Jan., 27. ME. stour, battle, contest (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1270). Anglo-F. estour, combat, battle (Gower, Mirour, 1927), O. Prov. estor, estorn, ‘combat, mêlée’; estornir, estormir, ‘assaillir, attaquer’ (Levy); Ital. stormo, a conflict, combat (Fanfani); of Germ. origin, MHG. sturm, disturbance, combat (Schade).
stover, provisions, fodder for cattle; ‘Our low medowes . . . not so profitable for stover and forrage as the higher meads be’, Harrison, Desc. Brit. 110 (Halliwell); Tusser, Husbandry, November; Tempest, iv. 1. 63; Drayton, Pol. xxv, p. 1158 (Nares). In prov. use in many parts of England for winter fodder or litter for cattle, hence stubble (EDD.). Anglo-F. estover, maintenance, necessary sustenance; allowances of wood to be taken out of another man’s woods (Cowell’s Interpreter); OF. estovoir, to be necessary. Romanic type stopere, a verb formed from L. est opus, it is necessary, so W. Forster, see Gautier’s Ch. Roland, Glossary (s.v. Estoet). See Ducange (s.v. Estoverium).
stover up, to bristle up. Ford, Love’s Sacrifice, ii. 1. 2. ‘To stover’ is entered in EDD. as an obsolete west-country word for ‘to bristle up’, probably from ‘stover’, meaning stubble. See above.
stownd, to amaze, ‘astound’, to beat down, Heywood, Golden Age, A. iii (Enceladus), vol. iii, p. 48; to strike senseless, id., Iron Age, A. v (Ajax); p. 343; stound, pp., Spenser, F. Q. v. 11. 19.
stowne, an hour, a short time; ‘Whoso love Endureth but a stowne’, Turbervile, The Lover finding his Love flitted, st. 16. See [stound].
stowre, strong, hardy; ‘Constancie knits the bones and makes us stowre’, G. Herbert, Temple, Church-porch, st. 20; ‘Stowre of conversacyon, estourdy’, Palsgrave; Skelton, Against the Scottes, 12; stower, hard, strong, ‘The stower nayles’, Latimer, 7 Sermon bef. King (ed. Arber, 185). In prov. use in E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Stour). See [stoor].
strage, slaughter, heap of slain men. Heywood, Dialogue 2, l. 16; Dial. 3 (Hellen); vol. vi, pp. 111, 143; Webster, Appius, v. 3 (Appius). L. strages, slaughter.