Stithy

sb. Forms: α. 3–4 steþi, 4 stethie, 4–5 stiþi, 4 stithi, 4–7 stithie, 5–6 stethy, stythy(e, 6 stythie, (5 styhthy, 6 stethye, stithye, 7 stythe), 7– stithy; β. chiefly Sc. and north. 4–6 stedy, 5 stedye, 6 steddye, -ie, stedee, steadie, 9 steddy, steady; 6 styd(d)y, styddie, stidhy, 6, 9 stiddie, 7– stiddy; γ. only Sc. and north. 5–6, 8–9 study, 6, 8–9 studdie, 6–9 studdy, (6 stude, studie, 9 stoddy). [a. ON. steði wk. masc. (accus. steðja):—prehistoric *staþjan-, f. Teut. root *sta- to STAND.

  Normally the ON. steði should become *steþe in ME. This is represented by STITH sb., most of the forms of which, however, show irregular vowel-change. The disyllabic forms here may be compared with those of SMITHY from ON. smiðja wk. fem.]

  1.  An anvil.

  α.  1295.  MS. Exch. Acc., 5/8. Et viij d. in uno stithi et stithistok portando … usque ad placeam galee.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 23237. Als it war dintes on a steþi þat smythes smittes in a smeþey.

c. 1340.  Nominale (Skeat), 507. Tenailes enclume et fow, tonges stethie and bely.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxviii. (Adrian), 454, 457. Þe emperoure … gert bryng hyme a gret steþi. sone þai sanctis … to þe stedy brocht wes þane … & gert þar theis brokine be sa smal [etc.].

c. 1423.  Inv., in Raine, Abps. York (Rolls), III. 306. Pro j incude magna, vocata stethy, de ferro.

1483.  Caxton, Golden Leg., 288/4. He commanded to brynge forth an anuelt or a stythye.

1572.  Bossewell, Armorie, II. 123 b. The Anuild … is an auncient addycion of armory, and is called in ye Northerne tongue a Stethye.

1656.  Trapp, Comm. Mark vii. 33. The wise Lapidist brings not his softer stones to the stithy.

1662.  Hibbert, Body Divinity, I. 108. Mans heart … like the stithy, is still the harder for beating.

1753.  Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., App., Stithy, or Stuthy.

1812.  Scott, Rokeby, I. xxxi. While on the stithy glows the steel.

1867.  Carlyle, Remin. (1881), II. 42. Well do I remember our return…, with the clink of Alick’s stithy alone audible.

1870.  Good Words, April, 253/2. [A nail-shop] in which a … sharp young fellow … is shedding showers of ruddy sparks from his ‘stithy,’ or small anvil.

1890.  A. J. Armstrong, Ingleside Musings, 153. But hear the sang, the ringin’ stithy sings.

  fig.  1821.  Scott, Kenilw., xviii. ‘Let me sleep on that hard point,’ said Varney; ‘I cannot else perfect the device I have on the stithy.’

1869.  Lowell, Fam. Epist. Friend, 76. Let whoso likes be beat, poor fool, On life’s hard stithy to a tool.

  β.  c. 1375.  Stedy: see α.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., I. v. 227. Iwball … wes the first þat musik fand, Wiþ hameris clynkand on a stedye [v.rr. stythy, study].

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, VII. xi. 67. Five … citeis, Thor wapynnis to renew … Sett vp forgys and steyle stydyis fyne.

1565.  Jewel, Repl. Harding, VIII. 387. Job saithe, Stetit cor eius sicut incus: His harte stoode as a steadie.

1583.  Melbancke, Philotimus, T ij. The more you strike iron vpon the stidhy, the harder & tougher y^e iron is.

1868.  Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., Stiddy, (often pr. stithy), an anvil.

1894.  P. H. Hunter, James Inwick, x. (1896), 96. It was a waly hammer he swung, an’ my certy, whan he brocht it doun, he gart the stiddy dirl an’ the sparks flee.

1902.  Baring-Gould, Nebo, ii. 9. Each ‘jack’ has in it socket holes. Into one of these … the ‘steady’ is inserted, a slip of steel, upon which the worker places the white-hot end of his rod, and hammers it into shape.

  γ.  c. 1425.  Study: see β.

a. 1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xxxiii. 52. As blaksmyth bruikit was his pallatt, ffor battering at the study.

1583.  Rec. Elgin (New Spalding Club, 1903), I. 172. Ane battering studdy.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. 379/2. A Pewterers … Bossing Studdy, or Stiddy.

1785.  Burns, Scotch Drink, xi. [He] Brings hard owrehip … The strong forehammer, Till block an’ studdie ring an’ reel.

1841.  Hartshorne, Salop. Ant., Gloss., Study, a small anvil used in manufacturing nails.

1864.  J. Brown, Jeems the Doorkeeper, 18. You hear the ring of the blacksmith’s study, you see the smoke of his forge.

1900.  C. Murray, Hamewith, 17. But see him … in his smiddy, An’ mark the thuds that shape the shoon, An’ dint the very studdy.

  b.  transf.

c. 1620.  A. Hume, Brit. Tongue, I. iv. The hammeres are the nether lip, the top of the tongue, and the midle tongue. The stiddies the overlip, the outward teeth, the inward teeth, and the roofe of the mouth.

  † 2.  Anat. The anvil bone of the ear = INCUS 1. (Cf. ANVIL 3 b.) Obs. rare.

1578.  Banister, Hist. Man, I. 11. This is the second Ossicle, called by the name of a stedy or anueld.

1615.  Crooke, Body of Man, 592. Those two [bones of the ear] which are knowne by the names of the Anuill or the Stithy, and the Mallet or Hammer.

  3.  A forge, smithy.

  α.  1602.  Shaks., Ham., III. ii. 89 (1604 Qo.). My imaginations are as foule As Vulcans stithy.

1850.  G. P. R. James, Old Oak Chest, I. 149. On this green, detached from all other houses, stood the stithy.

1876.  Morris, Sigurd, III. 178. When the day of the smith is ended and the stithy’s fire dies out.

  β.  a. 1661.  Fuller, Worthies, Linc. (1662), 169. James Yorke a Blacksmith of Lincolne … is a Servant as well of Apollo as Vulcan, turning his Stiddy into a Study, having lately set forth a Book of Heraldry.

1825.  Brockett, N. C. Gloss., Stiddy, Stithy,… used sometimes … for the smith’s shop.

  † 4.  A disease incident to horses and oxen. Obs.

1600.  Surflet, Country Farm, I. xxiii. 132. The stithie [orig. F. l’encueur] hapning to the oxe, being otherwise called a mallet or hammer, is knowen when the beast hath his haire standing vpright, [etc.].

1611.  Cotgr., Encueur, the Stithie; (a disease of horses, and cattell). Ibid., Marteau, a hammer…; also, the Stithie (a beasts disease).

1706.  in Phillips; and in some later Dicts.

  5.  attrib. and Comb.: (sense 1) as stithy-man, -work; stithy-stock, the stock or base of an anvil.

1597.  Bp. Hall, Sat., II. i. 27. The subtile Stithy-man.

1295.  *Stithistok [see 1].

1585.  Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 305/2. Acmotheta,… the anuile or stithe stocke.

1888.  Sheffield Gloss., Stiddy-stock, a stand for an anvil.

1839.  Carlyle, Chartism, viii. 158. He had learned metallurgy, *stithy-work in general.

  Hence † Stithy v., trans., to forge. lit. and fig.

c. 1420.  Wyclif, Josh., Prol. Wite he me not in to repreuynge of oold men newe thingis to stithie [Vulg. sciat me non in reprehensionem veterum nova cudere].

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., IV. v. 255. But by the forge that stythied Mars his helme, Ile kill thee euery where.