Showing Results for "stye"

See Also:

• a variation of sty.

stye

British  

/ staɪ /

noun

1. inflammation of a sebaceous gland of the eyelid, usually caused by bacteria technical name hordeolum

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Etymology

Origin of stye

C15 styanye (mistakenly taken as sty on eye ), from Old English stīgend rising, hence swelling, stye + ye eye

Explanation

If you've ever gotten a swollen infection in your eyelid, you know just how unpleasant a stye can be. Styes are red and painful, and they're caused by touching your eye with dirty hands. You can spell this word stye or sty, but don't confuse it with the kind of sty a pig lives in. Your doctor might refer to a stye as a hordeolum, but what ever you call it, it's a common bacterial infection that usually goes away on its own. Stye comes from the Middle English styany, or "stye on eye," from a root that means "to go up or rise."

Example Sentences

So if, say, a customer of Style Girl signs up for OpenSky via Stye Girl’s Twitter account, OpenSky takes nothing when that customer buys a Style Girl product.

From Forbes • Sep. 18, 2013

The men wore plain attire, but a glance was enough to satisfy Willy that one of them was the taller of the two constables who had tried to capture Ralph on Stye Head.

From The Shadow of a Crime A Cumbrian Romance by Caine, Hall, Sir

Truly, it was Betsy, the mare which they had lost on that fearful day at the Stye Head Pass.

From The Shadow of a Crime A Cumbrian Romance by Caine, Hall, Sir

From this point onward the journey through Borrowdale towards the foot of Stye Head Pass must necessarily be a hard and tiresome one, there being scarcely a traceable path through the huge bowlders.

From The Shadow of a Crime A Cumbrian Romance by Caine, Hall, Sir

But that erthe in this erthe Be doynge euer thi wille, So that erthe for the erthe Stye up to thi holi hille.

From Erthe Upon Erthe by Various