different between snark vs stark

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: snärk, IPA^(key): /sn??(?)k/
• Rhymes: -??(r)k

Etymology 1

Noun sense “snide remark” as back-formation from snarky (1906), from obsolete snark (“to snore, snort”, verb) (1866), from Middle English snarken (“to snore”). Compare Low German snarken, North Frisian snarke, Swedish snarka, and English snort, and snore.

Noun

snark (uncountable)

1. Snide remarks or attitude.

   Synonyms: sarcasm, snideness

   • 2010, David Denby, Snark, Pan Macmillan (?ISBN), page 4:

     Snark will get you any way it can, fore and aft, and to hell with consistency. In a media society, snark is an easy way of seeming smart. […] Snark doesn't create a new image, a new idea. It's parasitic, referential, insinuating.

Related terms

• snarkiness
• snarky

Verb

snark (third-person singular simple present snarks, present participle snarking, simple past and past participle snarked)

1. To express oneself in a snarky fashion.
2. (obsolete) To snort.

Derived terms

• snarker

Etymology 2

From Snark, coined by Lewis Carroll as a nonce word in The Hunting of the Snark (1874), about the quest for an elusive creature. In sense of “a type of mathematical graph”, named as such in 1976 by Martin Gardner for their elusiveness.

Noun

snark (plural snarks)

1. (mathematics) A graph in which every node has three branches, and the edges cannot be coloured in fewer than four colours without two edges of the same colour meeting at a point.
2. (physics) A fluke or unrepeatable result or detection in an experiment.

Further reading

• snark on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Snark (Lewis Carroll) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “snark”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• snark at OneLook Dictionary Search

References

Anagrams

• ARNKs, Karns, Kršan, K???a, karns, knars, krans, narks, ranks, skarn

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stnar?k/
• Rhymes: -ar?k

Noun

snark n (genitive singular snarks, no plural)

1. crackle (of a fire)

Declension

Related terms

• snarka (“to crackle”)

Westrobothnian

Etymology

From snórk. Cognate with Smalandian snarke m, Helsingian snárse, snarkse m, snarka f, Norwegian snerkje m.

Noun

snark m (nominative & accusative definite singular snarken)

1. Skin, wrinkled skin-film which forms on porridge and gruel.
2. Cream.

Alternative forms

• sn?rk

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: stärk, IPA^(key): /st??k/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: stärk, IPA^(key): /st??k/
• Rhymes: -??(r)k

Etymology 1

From Middle English stark, starc, from Old English stearc, starc (“stiff, obstinate, severe, etc.”), from Proto-Germanic *starkaz, *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 start ("tail" or "rump"), a literal parallel to the modern butt naked.

Adjective

stark (comparative starker, superlative starkest)

1. (obsolete) Hard, firm; obdurate.
2. Severe; violent; fierce (now usually in describing the weather).
3. (poetic, literary or archaic) Strong; vigorous; powerful.
   • Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer.

4. Stiff, rigid.
   • The north is not so stark and cold.

5. Plain in appearance; barren, desolate.

6. Complete, absolute, full.

   • Consider, first, the stark security / The commonwealth is in now.

   • 1689 (first published posthumously), John Selden, Table-Talk

     Rhetoric is very good or stark naught; there's no medium in rhetoric.

   • Ramadans, and prolonged ham-squattings in cold, cheerless rooms were stark nonsense

Derived terms

• starken

Translations

Adverb

stark (not comparable)

1. starkly; entirely, absolutely

   • […] held him strangled in his arms till he was stark dead.

Usage notes

In standard modern English, the adverb is essentially restricted to stark naked and phrases meaning "crazy" on the pattern of stark raving mad.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English starken, from Old English stearcian (“to stiffen, become hard, grow stiff or hard”), from Proto-Germanic *stark?n?, *stark?n? (“to stiffen, become hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terg- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with German erstarken (“to strengthen”).

Verb

stark (third-person singular simple present starks, present participle starking, simple past and past participle starked)

1. (obsolete or dialect) To stiffen.

Related terms

• starkish
• starkly
• starkers

Anagrams

• Karst, Trask, karst, karts, skart

German

Etymology

From Middle High German stark, from Old High German stark, from Proto-Germanic *starkuz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?tark/, [?ta?k], [?ta??k], [?ta?k]

Adjective

stark (comparative stärker, superlative am stärksten)

1. strong (intense, powerful, unyielding)
2. strong (having a high concentration of some ingredient, e.g. alcohol)
3. (grammar) strong (inflecting according to a pattern distinct from another called "weak")
4. (colloquial, slightly dated) great, brilliant, awesome

Declension

See also

(grammar): gemischt, schwach

Further reading

• “stark” in Duden online
• “stark” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• Friedrich Kluge (1883) , “stark”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891

Kashubian

Etymology

Ultimately from Proto-Slavic *star?.

Noun

stark m

1. grandfather

Related terms

• starka

Low German

Etymology

Cognate with German stark, Dutch sterk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stark/, /sta?k/

Adjective

stark (comparative starker, superlative starkst)

1. strong, powerful

Declension

Synonyms

• dull
• heftig
• hevig
• ossig
• slimm
• stevig
• dannig
• düchtig
• swied

Derived terms

• Starkde/Stärkde

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *starkuz, whence also Old English stearc, Old Norse sterkr.

Adjective

stark

1. strong

Derived terms

• starch?

Descendants

• German: stark
• Yiddish: ??????? (shtark)

Slovene

Noun

stark

1. genitive dual/plural of starka

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish starker, from Old Norse starkr, from Proto-Germanic *starkuz, from Proto-Indo-European *sterg-.

Pronunciation

Adjective

stark (comparative starkare, superlative starkast)

1. strong; able to use great force
2. strong; capable of withstanding great physical force
3. strong; highly stimulating to the senses

   starkt ljus

   strong light

4. (taste) spicy, hot; with a biting taste

   Den maten är för stark för mig.

   That food is too hot for me.

5. strong; having a high concentration of an essential; possibly alcohol

   starkt kaffe

   strong coffee

6. (grammar) strong
7. (military) strong; not easily subdued or taken

Declension

Synonyms

• (able to use great force): kraftfull
• (capable of withstanding force): stadig
• (spicy): het
• (having intense odor or flavor): frän, skarp, stickande

Related terms

• styrka
• stärka
• styrkelyft
• starkt verb, stark böjning

See also

• oregelbundet verb

Anagrams

• raskt