Starkとは意味・読み方・使い方

語源 1

From Middle English stark, starc, from 古期英語 stearc, starc (“stiff, rigid, unyielding, obstinate, hard, strong, severe, violent”), from Proto-West Germanic *stark, from Proto-Germanic *starkuz (“stiff, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian sterc (“strong”), Dutch sterk (“strong”), Low German sterk (“strong”), German stark (“strong”), Danish stærk (“strong”), Swedish stark (“strong”), Norwegian sterk (“strong”), Icelandic sterkur (“strong”). Related to starch.

In the phrase stark naked: an alternation of start ("tail" または "rump"), a literal parallel to the modern butt naked.

形容詞

stark (comparative starker, superlative starkest)

1. (obsolete) Hard, firm; obdurate.
2. Severe; violent; fierce (now usually in describing the weather).
   • 2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist‎^[1], volume 407, number 8835, page 80:

     Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.

3. (poetic, literary or archaic) Strong; vigorous; powerful.
   • 1805, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], OCLC 1001655651:

     a stark, moss-trooping Scot

   • c. 1622, John Fletcher; Philip Massinger [et al.?], “Beggars Bvsh”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, OCLC 3083972, Act III, scene ii:

     Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer.

4. Stiff, rigid.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book I, canto I, stanza 44:

     His heauie head, deuoide of carefull carke, / Whose sences all were straight benumbd and starke.

   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene iii]:

     Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff / Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies.

   • 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, OCLC 1048971098, (please specify |act=I to V):

     The north is not so stark and cold.

5. Plain in appearance; barren, desolate.

   I picked my way forlornly through the stark, sharp rocks.

6. Naked.
   • 1817 December​, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, OCLC 1000449192, page 211:

     They bore me to a cavern in the hill
     Beneath that column, and unbound me there;
     And one did strip me stark; and one did fill
     A vessel from the putrid pool; one bare
     A lighted torch, and four with friendless care
     Guided my steps the cavern-paths along […]

7. Complete, absolute, full.

   I screamed in stark terror.

   A flower was growing, in stark contrast, out of the sidewalk.

   • 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, OCLC 1048971098, (please specify |act=I to V):

     Consider, first, the stark security / The commonwealth is in now.

   • 1689 (first published posthumously), John Selden, Table-Talk

     Rhetoric is very good or stark naught; there's no medium in rhetoric.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 17, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299:

     Ramadans, and prolonged ham-squattings in cold, cheerless rooms were stark nonsense

派生語

• starken

副詞

stark (not comparable)

1. starkly; entirely, absolutely

   He's gone stark, staring mad.

   She was just standing there, stark naked.

   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, James Nichols, editor, The Church History of Britain, […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), new edition, London: […] [James Nichols] for Thomas Tegg and Son, […], published 1837, OCLC 913056315:

     […] held him strangled in his arms till he was stark dead.

   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎^[2]:

     “… That woman is stark mad, Lord Stranleigh. Her own father recognised it when he bereft her of all power in the great business he founded. …”

使用する際の注意点

In standard modern English, the adverb is essentially restricted to stark naked and phrases meaning "crazy" on the pattern of stark raving mad.

語源 2

From Middle English starken, from 古期英語 stearcian (“to stiffen, become hard, grow stiff または hard”), from Proto-Germanic *starkōną, *starkēną (“to stiffen, become hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with German erstarken (“to strengthen”).

動詞

stark (三人称単数 現在形 starks, 現在分詞 starking, 過去形および過去分詞形 starked)

1. (obsolete or dialect) To stiffen.

関連する語

• starkish
• starkly
• starkers

アナグラム

• Karst, Trask, karst, karts, skart