Stight

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic verb meaning to climb or mount upward, as one might ascend a steep path or hill
2. Used in older English to describe the act of rising or climbing up to a higher place
3. A rare, obsolete term for ascending or mounting something, such as a slope or ladder

Etymology: The Old English ancestor of this word meant "to dispose, arrange, regulate, direct, rule" or "to instigate, incite," which has nothing to do with climbing. The word traces back to a Proto-Germanic noun, *stihtiz, meaning "a step, track, overpass," and that noun comes from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to go, climb." The link between a step and the act of climbing is the bridge between the old meanings and the modern one. The verb's Middle English form was "stighten," and its relatives in German and Dutch, "stiften" and "stichten," still carry the older sense of establishing or founding something. The English verb "stight" is a rare survival in which that ancient root surfaces as "climb up high," a sense much closer to its earliest physical origin than to the "arranging" meaning it started with.