Other forms: stouts
Stout means solidly thick and strong. Stout boots, a stout stick, stoutly built.
Of things it praises strength: a stout rope, a stout door, stout walking boots. Of a person it is a kind way of saying heavy, and it is now dated. Of a defence or a denial it means firm — a stout defence, stoutly denied. Stout is also a dark strong beer, of which Guinness is the best known. Note stoutly; and that the word once meant proud and fierce.
1adjectivestoutSolidly thick and strong.
“He cut a stout stick from the hedge to help him walk.”
2noundarkA dark strong beer.
“He ordered a pint of stout with a thick creamy head at the Irish pub.”
stout is a quality of solidity.
Also accepted in games: sturdy
Old French estout meant brave or proud, from a Frankish word meaning bold. The sense of solid bulk came later in English, and the beer was named for being strong.
Old French
estout — brave, fierce, proud
Middle English
stoute
English, today
stout
Built from
From Middle English stoute, from Old French estout (“brave, fierce, proud”) (Modern French - dialectal stout (“proud”)), from earlier Old French estolt (“strong”), from Frankish stolt, stult (“bold, proud”), from Proto-Germanic stultaz (“bold, proud”), from Proto-Indo-European stel- (“to put, stand”). Cognate with Dutch stout (“stout, bold, naughty”), Low German stolt (“stately, proud”), German stolz (“proud, haughty, arrogant, stately”), Old Norse stoltr (“proud”) (Danish stolt (“proud”), Icelandic stoltur (“proud”)). Meaning "strong in body, powerfully built" was c, but has been to a large extent displaced by the euphemistic meaning "thick-bodied, fat and large," which is first recorded 1804. Original sense preserved in stout-hearted (1552).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sharper Adjectives