Stie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small enclosure where pigs are kept ; an archaic verb meaning to climb up or mount to a higher place
2. A pen built for keeping pigs confined ; an old-fashioned term for ascending or climbing upward
3. An enclosure in which swine are housed ; a rare, dated verb describing the act of climbing to a height

Etymology: "Stie" is an obsolete spelling of "sty," the word for a pen where pigs are kept. The same spelling also appears in the old sense of an inflamed bump on the eyelid, a meaning that is now written "stye." Both senses trace back to the same Old English verb, "stīgan," meaning "to climb" or "rise," since a swelling rises up from the skin. The eyelid meaning developed from an Old English word, "stīgend," for a small tumour on the eyelid, formed from "stīgan" plus "eye." In Middle English the form became "styanye," and the modern "stye" was probably a back-formation from it, a shortened form made by readers who took the ending for a suffix and dropped it. The eyelid sense is first recorded in the 17th century, while the pigpen sense is much older and is the one the spelling "stie" is most often associated with.