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

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

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

They will ride fast, and, returning to Stye Head, hope to come upon Ralph from behind and capture him unawares.

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

The first week of 1916 was marked by a progressive development of a forward Russian movement extending along the Stye and Strypa rivers from the Pripet marshes to Bessarabia.

From America's War for Humanity by Russell, Thomas Herbert