Stean

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An old Scots word for a stone or pebble ; a large earthenware pot or jug used for holding liquids ; to face or line a well or shaft with masonry
2. A rock or stone, a usage found in Scottish dialect ; a vessel of glazed clay or stone used for storing drink ; to wall up the inside of a well with stone
3. Chiefly Scots for a pebble or rock ; a jug made from stoneware for keeping liquid ; to build a stone lining within a well or pit

Etymology: The Scots "stean" is a northern survival of "stone," and its story runs through a clay jug rather than a rock. Old English "stǣna" meant a stone jug or pot made of stone or earth, and by Middle English "stene" had come to mean a waterpot. The same Germanic root gave Old High German "steinna," a pot or saucepan, so the vessel sense was once shared across the Germanic languages, while the "stone" sense was carried by its close relative "stein." The word's other strand comes from a verb. Old English "stǣnan" meant to adorn with precious stones, and also to throw stones at someone, a pairing that survives in Gothic "stainjan," meaning to throw stones at. Middle English "stenen" carried these senses forward, so the verb and the vessel share a root but grew apart. "Stean" itself descends from Northern Middle English "stan" and "stane," which were regional forms of "stone." It therefore sits in the same family as standard English "stone," differing only in its dialect history.