stirk

English

Etymology

From Middle English stirk, sterke, styrke, from Old English stīrc, stȳrc, stȳric, stīorc (“calf, a stirk, a young bullock or a heifer”), from Proto-West Germanic *stiurik, from Proto-Germanic *stiurikaz (“bullock”), diminutive of Proto-Germanic *steuraz (“steer”), equivalent to steer +‎ -ock. Cognate with Middle Low German sterke (“stirk”), Middle Dutch stierick ("stirk"; compare Modern Dutch sterke (“young cow”)), German Sterk, Stärke, Stark (“stirk”). More at steer.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /stɜːk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /stɝk/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)k

Noun

stirk (plural stirks)

1. (British, Scotland, dialectal, dated) A yearling cow; a young bullock or heifer.
   • 1827, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], volume I (The Highland Widow), Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 197:

     But beware of MacPhadraick, my son; for when he called himself the friend of your father, he better loved the most worthless stirk in his herd, than he did the life-blood of MacTavish Mhor.

   • 1843 March 3, “To Be Sold by Auction, By B. Cheatle & Son”, in Leicester Journal, and Midland Counties General Advertiser, volume 92, number 4895, Leicester: James Jackson, page 2:

     Comprising eleven calved and in-calf cows and heifers, three barren cows, four fat cows and heifers, two sturks and three yearlings; fifteen in-lamb ewes and theaves, […]

   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 20:

     he could stop a running stirk by the horns, so strong he was in the wrist-bones.

Anagrams

• Kirst, skirt