Etymograph

English

stony

Stony comes from Middle English stony ‘Comprised of or made from stone or rock’, from Old English stāniġ ‘stony, rocky’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- ‘to stiffen’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*steyh₂-1‘to stiffen’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*stainaz2‘stone’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*stainagaz3reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*stainag4reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150stāniġ3‘stony, rocky’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500stony3‘Comprised of or made from stone or rock’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1817stony3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *stainaz
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *stainagaz
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English stony
  4. 4 Wiktionary, Old English stanig
  5. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1817, Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Revolt of Islam. […]: “o’er the heaps of dead, / Whose stony eyes…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*steyh₂-Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *stainaz‘to stiffen’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*stainazWiktionary, Proto-Germanic *stainagaz‘stone’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*stainagazWiktionary, English stonyreconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*stainagWiktionary, Old English stanigreconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150stāniġWiktionary, English stony‘stony, rocky’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500stonyWiktionary, English stony‘Comprised of or made from stone or rock’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1817stonyWiktionary, English stony. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1817, Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Revolt of Islam. […]: “o’er the heaps of dead, / Whose stony eyes…”

Formed from stone + -y

Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- ‘to stiffen’

…

Proto-Germanic *stainaz

Proto-West Germanic *stain

Old English stān

Middle English ston ‘a stone’

English stone

Linked words

through Proto-Germanic *stainaz ‘stone’

stone, stain, stein, 4 more

Today it means

adj As hard as stone.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “stony”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Germanic *stainaz, Proto-Germanic *stainagaz, Old English stanig. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- / stony

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