Sting comes from Old English 'stingan', to pierce or prick, from Proto-Germanic '*stinganą', of imitative or pointed-action origin. The historical chain includes Old English stingan and Proto-Germanic *stinganą. The quoted older senses, "stingan" and "*stinganą", supply the semantic anchors for sting. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word sting carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a verb, "to wound with a sharp pointed organ; a sharp tingling pain". English derivatives include stinger and stinging; related English forms include stung. The result is a verb and noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.