Other forms: stalwarts
A stalwart is a loyal reliable supporter over many years. A party stalwart, club stalwarts, a stalwart of the community.
It is warm and slightly old-fashioned, and it belongs to the people who turn up year after year without ever leading anything. As an adjective it means sturdy and dependable, which is the older sense of the two.
1nounstalwartA loyal reliable supporter over many years.
“She has been a stalwart of the village choir for forty years.”
stalwart is a supporter.
Scots stalwart is a variant of stalworth, from Old English words meaning place and worth.
Proto-Indo-European
*steh₂- — to stand (up)
Old English
stǣlwierþe — able to stand in good stead, serviceable
Middle English
stal-worth — physically strong, hardy, robust; brave, courageous
Scots
stalwart
English, today
stalwart
Built from
Borrowed from Scots stalwart under the influence of Walter Scott, displacing earlier a doublet of stalworth, wherewith it forms a doublet. From Middle English stal-worth (“physically strong, hardy, robust; brave, courageous”), from Old English stǣlwierþe (“able to stand in good stead, serviceable”), probably from staþol (“establishment; foundation”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European steh₂- (“to stand (up)”)) or stǣl (“place; condition, stead”) + -wierþe (“able to, capable of”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European wert- (“to rotate, turn”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA