stark

Meanings

1. Hard, firm; obdurate.
2. Severe; violent; fierce (now usually in describing the weather).
3. Strong; vigorous; powerful.
4. Stiff, rigid.
5. Plain in appearance; barren, desolate.
6. Naked.
7. Complete, absolute, full.

1. Starkly; entirely, absolutely.

1. To stiffen.

1. A surname.
2. A number of places in the United States:
3. An unincorporated community in Butts County, Georgia.
4. An unincorporated community in Stark County, Illinois.
5. A tiny city in Neosho County, Kansas.
6. An unincorporated community in Elliott County, Kentucky.
7. An unincorporated community in Pike County, Missouri.
8. A small town in Coos County, New Hampshire.
9. A small town in Herkimer County, New York, named after John Stark.
10. An unincorporated community in Boone County, West Virginia.
11. A small town in Vernon County, Wisconsin.

1. The language spoken in the Ender's Game series, which is nearly identical to American English.

Etymology

From Middle English stark, starc, from Old English stearc, starc (“stiff, rigid, unyielding, obstinate, hard, strong, severe, violent”), from Proto-West Germanic *stark, from Proto-Germanic *starkuz (“stiff, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian sterc (“strong”), Dutch sterk (“strong”), Low German sterk (“strong”), German stark (“strong”), Danish stærk (“strong”), Swedish stark (“strong”), Norwegian sterk (“strong”), Icelandic sterkur (“strong”). Related to starch. In the phrase stark naked: an alternation of Middle English stert naked, from stert (“tail”), a literal parallel to the modern butt naked.