stark

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Bare, plain, and empty in appearance.

   I picked my way through the stark, sharp rocks.

2. 2
   adj

   Complete or extreme; very clear and obvious.

   There is a stark contrast between the two neighborhoods.

3. 3
   adv

   Completely; totally.

   He went stark mad after years of isolation.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Stark originally meant “hard” or “stiff” in Old English. By late Middle English it had developed the intensifying sense “absolutely, utterly,” as in stark naked and stark staring mad.

From Middle English stark, starc, from Old English stearc, starc (“stiff, rigid, unyielding, obstinate, hard, strong, severe, violent”), from Proto-West Germanic *stark, from Proto-Germanic *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 Middle English stert naked, f…

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary