Other forms: stokes, stoked, stoking
To stoke is to feed and stir a fire, or to build up a feeling. Stoke the fire, stoke fears, stoke the boiler.
The literal sense belongs to steam engines and furnaces, where a stoker shovelled coal and kept the fire even — a job that ran the railways and the navy. Figuratively, to stoke is to encourage something to grow: stoke fears, stoke demand, stoke the flames of a row. Note stoker; and stoked, which in informal American use means very excited.
1verbstokeTo feed and stir a fire.
“He stoked the fire and added another log before going to bed.”
2verbbuildTo build up a feeling or a demand.
“The newspaper's headlines stoked fear about the new disease.”
stoke is a feeding or encouraging.
Middle English stoken came from Middle Dutch stoken, to poke or thrust. The verb was made from stoker, which English borrowed first, so the job named the action.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)tewg- — to push, beat
Proto-Germanic
*stukōną — to be stiff, push
Proto-West Germanic
*stokōn
Old Saxon
*stokon
Old Dutch
*stokon
Middle Low German
stoken — to poke, thrust
Middle Dutch
stoken — to poke, thrust
Middle English
stoken
English, today
stoke
From Middle English stoken, from Middle Dutch stoken (“to poke, thrust”) or Middle Low German stoken (“to poke, thrust”), from Old Dutch stokon or Old Saxon stokon, both from Proto-West Germanic stokōn, from Proto-Germanic stukōną (“to be stiff, push”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)tewg- (“to push, beat”). Cognate with Middle High German stoken (“to pierce, jab”), Norwegian Nynorsk stauka (“to push, thrust”). Alternative etymology derives the Middle English word from Old French estoquer, estochier (“to thrust, strike”), from the same Germanic source. More at stock.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire