Dictionary adjective *(s)ter- stark
(adjective)

Meanings

1.
strong
How useful:
Opposite (closest): schwach

Examples

You need to be a member to see the examples.

My Articles

False Friends Explained - "craft vs Kraft"

We'll take a look at the false friends "craft" and "Kraft" and how they got so confusing. And we'll explore the family of "Kraft" a bit and learn cool new words.

Vocab:

die Kraft, kräftig, die Stärke, die Schwerkraft, KFZ


Word Family

Root: *(s)ter-

The core idea of this root was:

stiff, rigid

Pretty simple, but it evolved into quite a few different directions.

Here’s an (incomplete) list of English family members:

  • stark – (“strong, rigid”, shifted toward serious)
  • starch – (“makes mush thick, stiff”)
  • stern – (“rigid”)
  • to start – (“jumping up quickly, stiff muscles”)
  • to startle – (Same as “start” but shifted toward the cause)
  • to stare – (“stiff gaze”, same as German “starren”)
  • starve – (“stiff corpse”, same as German “sterben” – to die)
  • torpedo – (“make numb”, from a Latin name for an electric ray fish that numbs you. Military name first used for sea mines, because they “sting” your ship)
  • stereo – (Greek word for “solid”, they used it among other things for “solid 3D perception, I suppose)

The root is also the origin of the Slavic word star-, which means old.

 

0 0 votes
Article Rating

Questions and Comments

🗨
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments


Never miss out!

Join over 20.000 German learners and get my epic newsletter whenever I post a new article :)

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.