stool
/stuːl/ noun, verb
Forms stools stooling stooled stoole
- noun A seat for one person without a back or armrests.
- noun A footstool.
- noun (now chiefly dialectal, Scotland) A seat with a back; a chair.
- noun (now chiefly dialectal, Scotland, literally and figuratively) A throne.
- noun (West Africa) A royal seat; a chief's throne.
- noun (horticulture) A plant that has been cut down until its main stem is close to the ground, resembling a stool, to promote new growth.
- noun (dated) A close-stool; a seat used for urination and defecation: a chamber pot, commode, outhouse seat, or toilet.
- noun (chiefly medicine, by extension) Feces; excrement. “I provided the doctor with stool samples.”
- verb (chiefly medicine) To produce stool: to defecate.
- verb (horticulture) To cut down (a plant) until its main stem is close to the ground, resembling a stool, to promote new growth.
- verb (agriculture) To ramify; to tiller, as grain; to shoot out suckers.
Synonyms
can chamber chamber pot chemical toilet commode Cousin John crapper gazunder guzunder honey bucket honeypot Jerry john johnny jordan latrine mingo necessary stool pan pee pot fecal matter faecal matter feces faeces BM ordure dejection toilet pot potty
Etymology
From Middle English stool, from Old English stōl (“chair, seat”), from Proto-West Germanic *stōl, from Proto-Germanic *stōlaz (“chair”), from Proto-Indo-European *stoh₂los (“frame, rack, stand”), from *steh₂- (“to stand”).
Cognate with North Frisian stuul, stölj, Stööl (“chear”), Saterland Frisian Stoul (“chear”), West Frisian stoel (“chair, seat”), Dutch stoel (“chair”), German Stuhl (“chair”), Low German Stohl (“chair”), Luxembourgish Stull (“chair”), Vilamovian śtül (“chair”), Yiddish שתוהל (shsuhl), שטול (shtul, “chair”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish stol (“chair”), Faroese stólur (“chair”), Icelandic stóll (“chair”), Crimean Gothic stul (“seat”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐍉𐌻𐍃 (stōls, “chair; throne”), Russian стул (stul, “chair”), Estonian tool (“chair”), Finnish tuoli (“chair”); also Breton and Cornish sevel (“to erect, rise; to build; to lift; to compose; to earn”), Irish sáil, sál (“heel”), Scottish Gaelic sàil (“heel”), Welsh sefyll (“to stand; to stop; to sit”), Latin sistō (“to set; to stop; to stand; to stabilise”), Umbrian 𐌔𐌄𐌔𐌕𐌖 (sestu, “to place”), Greek στέκω (stéko), στέκομαι (stékomai, “to stand up”), Albanian shtoj (“to add; to augment; to accumulate”), Lithuanian stálas (“table”), Old Prussian stallan (“table”), Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Russian стол (stol, “table”), Czech stůl (“table”), Polish stół (“table”), Serbo-Croatian сто̑, сто̑л, stȏ, stȏl (“table”), Slovak stôl (“table”), Slovene stol (“chair”), Armenian երթալ (ertʻal), էթալ (ētʻal, “to go”), Central Kurdish ستوون (stûn, “column”), Pashto ستن (stən, “needle; awl; pin; syringe; post; hand; dragonfly”), Persian ایستادن (ēstādan / istâdan), وایسادن (vâysâdan), وایستادن (vâystâdan, “to stand up; to step; to stay”), ستون (sotun / sutūn, “column”), Northern Kurdish rawestîn (“to stand up”), stûn (“column”), Ossetian стын (styn, “to stand up”), Hittite 𒋾𒄑𒍣 (tiezzi, “to step; to place oneself”), Tocharian A ṣtäm- (“to stand”), Tocharian B stäm- (“to stand”), Sanskrit तिष्ठति (tiṣṭhati, “to stand; to stay”). More at stand.
From Latin stolo. See stolon.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A plant from which layers are propagated by bending its branches into the soil. P. Henderson.
- verb To ramfy; to tiller, as grain; to shoot out suckers. R. D. Blackmore.
- noun A single seat with three or four legs and without a back, made in various forms for various uses.
- noun A seat used in evacuating the bowels; hence, an evacuation; a discharge from the bowels.
Etymology [L. stolo. See Stolon.]
Etymology [AS. stol a seat; akin to OFries. & OS. stol, D. stoel, G. stuhl, OHG. stuol, Icel. stoll, Sw. & Dan. stol, Goth. stols, Lith. stalas a table, Russ. stol'; from the root of E. stand. *163. See Stand, and cf. Fauteuil.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “stool”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details