stalwart

Definition

Firmly or solidly built.

Etymology

Borrowed from Scots stalwart under the influence of Walter Scott, displacing earlier stalworth, wherewith it forms a doublet. From Middle English stal-worth (“physically strong, hardy, robust; brave, courageous”), from Old English stǣlwierþe (“able to stand in good stead, serviceable”), probably from staþol (“establishment; foundation”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”)) or stǣl (“place; condition, stead”) + -wierþe (“able to, capable of”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to rotate, turn”)).

Example Sentences

• "This true Man ſoon aſſembled him beforn: / Three Sons he had that ſtalwart were and bold, / And twenty Men of Kin in his Houſhold."
• "[A] stalwart leather-clad "boy," just returned from trapping on the waters of Grand River, on the western side the mountains, who interlards his mountain jargon with Spanish words picked up in Taos and California."
• "For, observe, it was an assemblage of two hundred thousand young men—not simpering, dainty, kid-gloved weaklings, but stalwart, muscular, dauntless young braves, brimful of push and energy, and royally endowed with every attribute that goes to make up a peerless and magnificent manhood—the very pick and choice of the world's glorious ones."