different between stalk vs reel

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: stôk, IPA^(key): /st??k/
• (US) enPR: stôk, IPA^(key): /st?k/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /st?k/
• Homophone: stork (non-rhotic accents), Homophone: stock (in accents with the cot-caught merger)
• Rhymes: -??k

Etymology 1

From Middle English stalke, diminutive of stale (“ladder upright, stalk”), from Old English stalu (“wooden upright”), from Proto-Germanic *stal? (compare Middle Low German stal, stale (“chair leg”)), variant of *steluz, *stel?n (“stalk”) (compare Old English stela, Dutch steel, German Stiel, Danish stilk), from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (compare Albanian shtalkë (“crossbeam, board used as a door hinge”), Welsh telm (“frond”), Ancient Greek ?????? (stélos, “beam”), Old Armenian ????? (ste?n, “trunk, stalk”)).

Noun

stalk (plural stalks)

1. The stem or main axis of a plant, which supports the seed-carrying parts.

   • Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.

2. The petiole, pedicel, or peduncle of a plant.
3. Something resembling the stalk of a plant, such as the stem of a quill.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Grew to this entry?)

4. (architecture) An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
5. One of the two upright pieces of a ladder.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

6. (zoology)
   1. A stem or peduncle, as in certain barnacles and crinoids.
   2. The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect.
   3. The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.
7. (metalworking) An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English stalken, from Old English *stealcian (as in bestealcian (“to move stealthily”), stealcung (“stalking”)), from Proto-Germanic *stalk?n? (“to stalk, move stealthily”) (compare Dutch stelkeren, stolkeren (“to tip-toe, tread carefully”), Danish stalke (“to high step, stalk”), Norwegian dialectal stalka (“to trudge”)), from *stalkaz, *stelkaz (compare Old English stealc (“steep”), Old Norse stelkr, stjalkr (“knot (bird), red sandpiper”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)telg, *(s)tolg- (compare Middle Irish tolg (“strength”), Lithuanian stalgùs (“stiff, defiant, proud”)).

Alternate etymology connects Proto-Germanic *stalk?n? to a frequentative form of *stelan? (“to steal”).

Verb

stalk (third-person singular simple present stalks, present participle stalking, simple past and past participle stalked)

2. (transitive) To approach slowly and quietly in order not to be discovered when getting closer.
   • But they had already discovered that he could be bullied, and they had it their own way; and presently Selwyn lay prone upon the nursery floor, impersonating a ladrone while pleasant shivers chased themselves over Drina, whom he was stalking.

3. (transitive) To (try to) follow or contact someone constantly, often resulting in harassment.^Wp

4. (intransitive) To walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner.
5. (intransitive) To walk behind something, such as a screen, for the purpose of approaching game; to proceed under cover.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Apophthegms

     The king […] crept under the shoulder of his led horse; […] "I must stalk," said he.

   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion

     One underneath his horse, to get a shoot doth stalk.

Conjugation

Translations

Noun

stalk (plural stalks)

1. A particular episode of trying to follow or contact someone.
2. The hunting of a wild animal by stealthy approach.
   • 1885, Theodore Roosevelt, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman

     When the stalk was over (the antelope took alarm and ran off before I was within rifle shot) I came back.

Related terms

• stalker

References

Etymology 3

Attested 1530 in the sense "to walk haughtily", perhaps from Old English stealc (“steep”), from Proto-Germanic *stelkaz, *stalkaz (“high, lofty, steep, stiff”); see above.

Verb

stalk (third-person singular simple present stalks, present participle stalking, simple past and past participle stalked)

1. (intransitive) To walk haughtily.

   • With manly mien he stalked along the ground.

   • 1704, Joseph Addison, Milton's Stile Imitated, in a Translation of a Story out of the Third Aeneid

     Then stalking through the deep, / He fords the ocean.

   • 1850, Charles Merivale, History of the Romans Under the Empire

     I forbear myself from entering the lists in which he has long stalked alone and unchallenged.

Translations

Noun

stalk (plural stalks)

1. A haughty style of walking.

Anagrams

• talks

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

stalk

1. first-person singular present indicative of stalken
2. imperative of stalken

English

Etymology

From Middle English reel, reele, from Old English r?ol, hr?ol, from Proto-Germanic *hrehulaz, from Proto-Indo-European *krek- (“to weave, beat”). Cognate with Icelandic ræl, hræl.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?i?l/
• Homophone: real (some accents)
• Rhymes: -i?l

Noun

reel (plural reels)

1. A shaky or unsteady gait.
   • 2010, Andrew Koppelman, The Gay Rights Question in Contemporary American Law (page 92)

     Doubtless the present game of chess was developed through just such fiddling; perhaps someone once thought that the drunken reel of the knight was hostile to the essence of Chess.

2. A lively dance originating in Scotland; also, the music of this dance; often called a Scottish (or Scotch) reel.
3. A kind of spool, turning on an axis, on which yarn, threads, lines, or the like, are wound.

   a log reel, used by seamen

   an angler's reel

   a garden reel

   nudge the fruit machine reel

4. (textiles) A machine on which yarn is wound and measured into lays and hanks, —-- for cotton or linen it is fifty-four inches in circuit; for worsted, thirty inches.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of McElrath to this entry?)

5. (agriculture) A device consisting of radial arms with horizontal stats, connected with a harvesting machine, for holding the stalks of grain in position to be cut by the knives.
6. (film) A short compilation of sample film work used as a demonstrative resume in the entertainment industry.

   Synonym: showreel

Derived terms

• hose reel, hosereel
• newsreel

Translations

Verb

reel (third-person singular simple present reels, present participle reeling, simple past and past participle reeled)

1. To wind on a reel.
2. To spin or revolve repeatedly.
3. To unwind, to bring or acquire something by spinning or winding something else.

   He reeled off some tape from the roll and sealed the package.

4. To walk shakily or unsteadily; to stagger; move as if drunk or not in control of oneself.
   • 1770, Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village

     the wagons reeling under the yellow sheaves

   • 1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, Virago Press, paperback edition, page 111

     Sarah reels a little, nevertheless, under the dog's boisterous greeting.

5. (with back) To back off or step away unsteadily and quickly.

   He reeled back from the punch.

6. To make or cause to reel.
7. To have a whirling sensation; to be giddy.

   • In these lengthened vigils his brain often reeled.

   • 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xi:

     The high school had a send-off in my honour. It was an uncommon thing for a young man of Rajkot to go to England. I had written out a few words of thanks. But I could scarcely stammer them out. I remember how my head reeled and how my whole frame shook as I stood up to read them.

8. To be in shock.
   • 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[2]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):

     New Jersey was reeling on Wednesday from the impact of Hurricane Sandy, which has caused catastrophic flooding here in Hoboken and in other New York City suburbs, destroyed entire neighborhoods across the state and wiped out iconic boardwalks in shore towns that had enchanted generations of vacationgoers.

9. To produce a mechanical insect-like song, as in grass warblers.
10. (obsolete) To roll.

Derived terms

• reel in
• reel off

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Erle, LREE, leer

Atong (India)

Etymology

Borrowed from English rail, from Middle English rail, rayl, partly from Old English regol (“a ruler, straight bar”) and partly from Old French reille; both from Latin regula (“rule, bar”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /re?l/

Noun

reel (Bengali script ????)

1. rains
2. train
3. stud (of a fence)

References

• van Breugel, Seino. 2015. Atong-English dictionary, second edition. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/487044/Atong_English_Dictionary.

Danish

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French réel (“real”), from Medieval Latin re?lis (“actual”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /r??l/, [????l?], [?e??l?]

Adjective

reel

1. real, proper
2. reliable, trustworthy, honest (about a person)

Inflection

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English reel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ri?l/, [?i??l], [?i?l], [?i?l]

Noun

reel c (singular definite reelen, plural indefinite reeler)

1. (dance) reel

Inflection