Sturdy

How to spell sturdy

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sturdy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sturdy mean?

1. adjectiveStrongly and solidly built; able to withstand rough use or pressure.

Sturdy in a sentence

• The old workbench was sturdy enough to hold the heavy engine.

• Hikers prefer a sturdy pair of boots for rocky trails.

Where does sturdy come from?

Language of origin: French

Sturdy came into English in the 1300s from the Old French word estourdi, which originally meant 'dazed', 'stunned', or 'reckless'. That past participle came from a verb estourdir, 'to stun or daze', traced back to a Vulgar Latin form roughly meaning 'to knock senseless'. The earliest English uses kept this rough flavour, describing someone as rash, violent, or stubbornly defiant rather than physically strong. Over the following centuries the sense softened and shifted toward the modern idea of solid, robust, and well built, applied to people, animals, and objects alike. The spelling trap is simply the unstressed second syllable, where the schwa hides whether you write -dy correctly after the 'r'.

How the word is built

• sturd- (from Old French estourdi: reckless, robust)
• -y (adjective suffix)