stamp

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small piece of paper you stick on a letter or parcel to show the postage has been paid.

   She put a stamp on the envelope and posted it.

2. 2
   noun

   A mark or design pressed onto a surface, or the small tool used to make it.

   The official put a stamp on my passport.

3. 3
   verb

   To press a mark or design onto something.

   They stamped the date on each document.

4. 4
   verb

   To put your foot down hard and noisily on the ground.

   The child stamped his feet in anger.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Stamp comes from a common Germanic root and may already have existed in Old English, although no Old English record survives. It appears around 1200 meaning to pound, while the senses of bringing down the foot and making an impression developed during the Middle Ages; the noun for an impression-making tool arose from the latter sense.

From Middle English stampen (“to pound, crush”), from assumed Old English *stampian, variant of Old English stempan (“to crush, pound, pound in mortar, stamp”), from Proto-West Germanic *stampōn, *stampijan, from Proto-Germanic *stampōną, *stampijaną (“to trample, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *stemb- (“to trample down”). Cognate with Dutch stampen (“to stamp, pitch”), German stampfen (“to stamp”), Danish stampe (“to stamp”), Swedish stampa (“to stomp”), Occitan estampar, Polish stąpać (“to step, treat”). See also stomp, step. Marks indicating that postage had been paid were originally made…

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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