stark

• (General American) enPR: stärk, IPA^(key): /stɑɹk/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: stärk, IPA^(key): /stɑːk/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɑː(r)k

From Middle English stark, starc, from Old English stearc, starc (“stiff, obstinate, severe, etc.”), from Proto-Germanic *starkaz, *starkuz (“stiff, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian sterc (“strong”), Dutch sterk (“strong”), Low German sterk (“strong”), German stark (“strong”), Danish stærk (“strong”), Swedish stark (“strong”), Norwegian sterk (“strong”), Icelandic sterkur (“strong”). Related to starch.

In the phrase stark naked: an alternation of start ("tail" or "rump"), a literal parallel to the modern butt naked.

stark (comparative starker, superlative starkest)

1. (obsolete) Hard, firm; obdurate.
2. Severe; violent; fierce (now usually in describing the weather).
   • 2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8835, page 80:

     Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.

3. (archaic) Strong; vigorous; powerful.
   • Sir Walter Scott

     a stark, moss-trooping Scot

   • Beaumont and Fletcher

     Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer.

4. Stiff, rigid.
   • Spenser

     Whose senses all were straight benumbed and stark.

   • Shakespeare

     Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff / Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies.

   • Ben Jonson

     The north is not so stark and cold.

5. Hard in appearance; barren, desolate.

   I picked my way forlornly through the stark, sharp rocks.

6. Complete, absolute, full.

   I screamed in stark terror.

   A flower was growing, in stark contrast, out of the sidewalk.

   • Ben Jonson

     Consider the stark security / The common wealth is in now.

   • Collier

     He pronounces the citation stark nonsense.

   • Selden

     Rhetoric is very good or stark naught; there's no medium in rhetoric.

• starken

stark (not comparable)

1. starkly; entirely, absolutely

   He's gone stark, staring mad.

   She was just standing there, stark naked.

   • Fuller

     […] held him strangled in his arms till he was stark dead.

   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎:

     “… That woman is stark mad, Lord Stranleigh. Her own father recognised it when he bereft her of all power in the great business he founded. …”

In standard modern English, the adverb is essentially restricted to stark naked and phrases meaning "crazy" on the pattern of stark raving mad.

From Middle English starken, from Old English stearcian (“to stiffen, become hard, grow stiff or hard”), from Proto-Germanic *starkōną, *starkēną (“to stiffen, become hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with German erstarken (“to strengthen”).

stark (third-person singular simple present starks, present participle starking, simple past and past participle starked)

1. (obsolete or dialectal) To stiffen.

• starkish
• starkly
• starkers

• Karst, Trask, karst, karts, skart

From Middle High German stark, from Old High German stark, from Proto-Germanic *starkuz.

• IPA^(key): /ʃtark/, [ʃtaːk], [ʃtɑrk], [ʃtɑːk]

• audio (Germany)

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• audio (Austria)

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stark (comparative stärker, superlative am stärksten)

1. strong (intense, powerful, unyielding)
2. strong (having a high concentration of some ingredient, e.g. alcohol)
3. (grammar) strong (inflecting according to a pattern distinct from another called "weak")
4. (colloquial, slightly dated) great, brilliant, awesome

(grammar): gemischt, schwach

• stark in Duden online

Cognate with German stark, Dutch sterk.

• IPA^(key): /stark/, /staːk/

stark (comparative starker, superlative starkst)

1. strong, powerful

• dull
• heftig
• hevig
• ossig
• slimm
• stevig
• dannig
• düchtig
• swied

• Starkde/Stärkde

From Proto-Germanic *starkuz, whence also Old English stearc, Old Norse sterkr.

stark

1. strong

• starchī

• German: stark
• Yiddish: שטאַרק‎ (shtark)

From Old Swedish starker, from Old Norse starkr, from Proto-Germanic *starkuz, from Proto-Indo-European *sterg-.

• audio

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stark (comparative starkare, superlative starkast)

1. strong; able to use great force
2. strong; capable of withstanding great physical force
3. strong; highly stimulating to the senses

   starkt ljus

   strong light

4. spicy, hot; with a biting taste

   Den maten är för stark för mig.

   That food is too hot for me.

5. strong; having a high concentration of an essential; possibly alcohol

   starkt kaffe

   strong coffee

6. (grammar) strong
7. (military) strong; not easily subdued or taken

• (able to use great force): kraftfull
• (capable of withstanding force): stadig
• (spicy): het
• (having intense odor or flavor): frän, skarp, stickande

• styrka
• stärka
• styrkelyft
• starkt verb, stark böjning

• oregelbundet verb