Studs

How to spell studs

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce studs

What does studs mean?

1. nounSmall metal knobs, pegs, or buttons fixed onto a surface for decoration or fastening.
2. nounThe vertical timbers or metal uprights that form the framework of a wall.
3. nounThe short projecting points on the sole of a boot that improve grip on soft ground.

Studs in a sentence

• She wore a pair of tiny silver studs in her ears.

• He used a detector to locate the wall studs before hanging the shelf.

• The football boots had moulded plastic studs for the wet pitch.

• The leather jacket was covered in shiny metal studs.

• The builders spaced the wooden studs sixteen inches apart.

• He replaced the worn studs on his rugby boots before the match.

Where does studs come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word actually braids together two separate Old English threads that both ended up spelled the same way. The construction and fastener sense descends from Old English studu, meaning an upright post, prop, or pillar, which is why a vertical timber inside a wall is still called a stud today; from the idea of a small projecting peg came the meaning of a knob, boss, or decorative metal button driven into leather, cloth, or a shirt front. The breeding sense, as in a stud farm or a stud animal, comes from a different Old English word, stod, meaning a herd of horses kept for breeding, which is itself related to the verb 'stand' and to the German Gestut. Over the centuries the spellings converged on stud, and the modern slang use for a virile or attractive man grew naturally out of the breeding-animal sense during the twentieth century. Because the word is short and phonetically regular, the plural simply adds -s with no spelling trap at all.

How the word is built

• stud (Old English studu: post, prop)
• -s (plural)