different between stickle vs demur

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?st?k(?)l/
• Rhymes: -?k?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English *stikel, *stykyl (in compounds), from Old English sticel (“a prickle, sting, goad”), from Proto-Germanic *stiklaz, *stikilaz (“sting, stinger, peak, cup, goblet”).

Noun

stickle (plural stickles)

1. A sharp point; prickle; a spine

Derived terms

• stickleback

Etymology 2

From Middle English stikel, from Old English sticel, sticol (“high, lofty, steep, reaching great heights, inaccessible”), from Proto-Germanic *stikulaz, *stikkulaz (“high, steep”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to stick; peak”).

Adjective

stickle (comparative more stickle, superlative most stickle)

1. steep; high; inaccessible
2. (Britain, dialect) high, as the water of a river; swollen; sweeping; rapid

Noun

stickle (plural stickles)

1. (Britain, dialect) A shallow rapid in a river.
2. (Britain, dialect) The current below a waterfall.
   • 1613, William Browne, Britannia's Pastorals

     Patient anglers, standing all the day / Near to some shallow stickle or deep bay.

Etymology 3

From a variant of stightle (“to order, arrange, direct”), from Middle English stightelen, sti?tlen, stihilen, stihlen, equivalent to stight (“to order, rule, govern”) +? -le (frequentative suffix).

Verb

stickle (third-person singular simple present stickles, present participle stickling, simple past and past participle stickled)

1. (obsolete) To act as referee or arbiter; to mediate.
2. (now rare) To argue or struggle for.
   • 1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew

     ‘She has other people than poor little you to think about, and has gone abroad with them; so you needn’t be in the least afraid she’ll stickle this time for her rights.’

3. To raise objections; to argue stubbornly, especially over minor or trivial matters.
   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History

     Miserable new Berline! Why could not Royalty go in some old Berline similar to that of other men? Flying for life, one does not stickle about his vehicle.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To separate, as combatants; hence, to quiet, to appease, as disputants.
   • 1630, Michael Drayton, The Muses' Elizium

     Which [question] violently they pursue, / Nor stickled would they be.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To intervene in; to stop, or put an end to, by intervening.
6. (intransitive, obsolete) To separate combatants by intervening.

   • When he [the angel] sees half of the Christians are already killed, and all the rest in a fair way to be routed, [he]stickles betwixt the remainders of God’s host, and the race of fiends.

7. (intransitive, obsolete) To contend, contest, or altercate, especially in a pertinacious manner on insufficient grounds.

   • Fortune, as she’s wont, turned fickle, / And for the foe began to stickle.

   • 1684, John Dryden, To The Disappointment

     for paltry punk they roar and stickle

   • c. 1817, William Hazlitt, Character of John Bull

     the obstinacy with which he stickles for the wrong

Derived terms

• stickler

Further reading

• stickle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• stickle in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• stickle at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Stickel, Tickles, icklest, lickest, tickles

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman demorer, from Old French demorer (French demeurer), from Vulgar Latin demoro, Latindemorari (“to tarry”), from de- + morari (“to delay”).

See alternative etymology in the Anglo-Norman ancestor.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: d?mûr?, IPA^(key): /d??m??/
• (General American) enPR: d?mûr?, IPA^(key): /d??m?/
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Distinguish from pronunciation of demure

Verb

demur (third-person singular simple present demurs, present participle demurring, simple past and past participle demurred)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To linger; to stay; to tarry
2. (intransitive) To delay; to pause; to suspend proceedings or judgment in view of a doubt or difficulty; to hesitate; to put off the determination or conclusion of an affair.
   • 1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward the Sixth

     Vpon this rubbe the English Embassadors thought fit to demurre

3. (intransitive) To scruple or object; to take exception; to oppose; to balk

4. (intransitive, law) To interpose a demurrer.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To suspend judgment concerning; to doubt of or hesitate about
6. (transitive, obsolete) To cause delay to; to put off
   • 1634, Francis Quarles, Emblems

     He demands a fee, / And then demurs me with a vain delay.

Related terms

• demurrage
• demurral
• demurrer

Translations

Noun

demur (plural demurs)

1. Stop; pause; hesitation as to proceeding; suspense of decision or action; scruple.
   • 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 132:

     Most geologists today would accept such evidence without demur, but it was still ‘fringe’ science when du Toit was publishing.

Translations

References

Anagrams

• MUDer, mured

Latin

Verb

d?mur

1. first-person plural present passive subjunctive of d?