sterten

Middle English

Alternative forms

• sturten, styrtan, stirten, steorten, starten

Etymology

From Old English styrtan, from Proto-West Germanic *sturtijan (“to startle, move, set in motion”).

Verb

sterten

1. to leap
   • c. 1250, Anonymous, "Cuckoo Song" (as printed in Oxford Book of English Verse, 1900):

     Bulluc sterteth

     Bullock starts

2. to start
3. to begin

Conjugation

Conjugation of sterten (weak in -te)

infinitive	(to) sterten, sterte
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	sterte	sterte
2nd-person singular	stertest	stertest
3rd-person singular	sterteth	sterte
subjunctive singular	sterte
imperative singular		—
plural1	sterten, sterte	sterten, sterte
imperative plural	sterteth, sterte	—
participles	stertynge, stertende	stert, ystert

¹ Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

Related terms

• stert

Descendants

• English: start, sturt (dialectal)
• Scots: stert, start
• Yola: starth

References

• “sterten, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.