Etymograph

English

stupid

Stupid comes from Middle French stupide, from Latin stupidus ‘struck senseless’, from stupeō ‘to be amazed’, ultimately from PIE *(s)tewp-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)tew-1‘to push, hit’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)tewp-1‘to push, stick’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstupeō1‘to be amazed, struck senseless’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstupidus1‘struck senseless, amazed’
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600stupide1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1702stupid1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English stupid
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1702, Alexander Pope, Sappho: “No sigh to rise, no tear had pow'r to…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)tew-Wiktionary, English stupid‘to push, hit’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)tewp-Wiktionary, English stupid‘to push, stick’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstupeōWiktionary, English stupid‘to be amazed, struck senseless’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstupidusWiktionary, English stupid‘struck senseless, amazed’
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600stupideWiktionary, English stupid
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1702stupidWiktionary, English stupid. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1702, Alexander Pope, Sappho: “No sigh to rise, no tear had pow'r to…”

A compound of *(s)tew- ‘to push, to hit’ + *(s)tewp- ‘to push, to stick’

Proto-Indo-European *(s)tew- ‘to push, to hit’

Proto-Indo-European *(s)tew- ‘to push, to hit’

Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp- ‘to push, to stick’

The story

Related also to Old English stoppian (‘to block, stop’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with stupid, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)tup-éh₁-ye-ti

1 more relative in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Lacking in intelligence.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “stupid”. 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 *(s)tew- / stupid