stirk

From Middle English stirk, sterke, styrke, from Old English stīrc, stȳrc, stȳric, stīorc (“calf, a stirk, a young bullock or a heifer”), 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”), German Sterk, Stärke, Stark (“stirk”). More at steer.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [stɜːk]
• (General American) IPA^(key): [stɝk]
• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)k

stirk (plural stirks)

1. (Britain, Scotland, dialectal, dated) A yearling cow; a young bullock or heifer.
   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song, Polygon 2006 (A Scots Quair), p. 20:

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

   • Sir Walter Scott

     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.

• Kirst, skirt