entry
stud
/stʌd/Post, ornament, breeding animal, or attractive man
From Proto-Indo-European *sta- (to stand) + Proto-Germanic *stōdą (breeding herd or animal group).
from PIE root *sta- "to stand, make or be firm." In later use especially "one of the small, single-story beams of a...
from Old English studu "pillar, prop, post, upright timber used as a support,"
+1 more sourcefrom Old English studu "pillar, prop, post, upright timber used as a support,"
+1 more sourcefrom Old English stōd
from Old English stōd
from Old English stōd
from Middle English stood, stod
Word Ancestry
from PIE root *sta- "to stand, make or be firm." In later use especially "one of the small, single-story beams of a...
from Old English studu "pillar, prop, post, upright timber used as a support,"
+1 more sourcefrom Old English studu "pillar, prop, post, upright timber used as a support,"
+1 more sourcefrom Old English stōd
from Old English stōd
from Old English stōd
from Middle English stood, stod
A building stud began life as something gloriously unglamorous: an upright timber standing inside a wall, doing the quiet work of holding the structure together. Its deeper family reaches back to Proto-Indo-European *sta-, “to stand,” the same ancient idea behind stand, status, station, and stable. Then the image shifted from support to projection: by the late thirteenth century, a stud could be a nail-head or knob sticking out of a surface, and by the fifteenth century it had become the shiny metal decoration on a jacket. But there is another stud hiding in the same spelling: Old English stōd meant a breeding animal or herd, giving English the stud horse and helping explain the modern compliment for an attractive, sexually successful man. So one stud stands in your wall, another breeds horses, and both preserve the visual logic of something firmly planted and conspicuously present.
The Story
A building stud began life as something gloriously unglamorous: an upright timber standing inside a wall, doing the quiet work of holding the structure together. Its deeper family reaches back to Proto-Indo-European *sta-, “to stand,” the same ancient idea behind stand, status, station, and stable. Then the image shifted from support to projection: by the late thirteenth century, a stud could be a nail-head or knob sticking out of a surface, and by the fifteenth century it had become the shiny metal decoration on a jacket. But there is another stud hiding in the same spelling: Old English stōd meant a breeding animal or herd, giving English the stud horse and helping explain the modern compliment for an attractive, sexually successful man. So one stud stands in your wall, another breeds horses, and both preserve the visual logic of something firmly planted and conspicuously present.
Modern Usage
An attractive, sexually desirable, or notably confident man
Kin & Kindred
From '*sta-'·to stand; make or be firm
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From '*stōdą'·breeding herd or animal group
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Wiktionary