Sty
/staɪ/noun
A pigpen or filthy, squalid place.
Did you know?The word is historically tied to pigs and filth, but its deeper power is that English kept the old image of a cramped animal enclosure as a metaphor for human squalor.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*stīaz
“pen, enclosure”
Old English
OE
stīġ
“pen for swine; enclosure”
Middle English
ME
stye
“pigpen; filthy place”
Modern English
English
sty
“a pigpen or a dirty, squalid place”