Etymology and links

[Postumus]

Are English stuff, German stupsen, Dutch stoot, Latin stupro, and Yiddish shtup all cognate and related to an IndoEuropean common ancestor?

[Clanad]

I suppose, by the wildest use of imagination, one could link the English word "stuff" to the other words. The Yiddish shtup is a term used in relation to... well... sexual intercourse.... and the German word stupsen, if memory serves, means to prod... While the Latin stupro (stuprar) means to ravish. Not enough to derive an answer to your question though...in my humble opinion...

[Peter Pedant]

Salve Postume !

Well, the answer er seems to be yes.....

English dictionaries come in various sizes and I just happen to have an etymological d. besides me...and it says.....

Stuff. Materials (French, Latin) Old F estoffe - stuffe.     Walloon Stoffe. Latin stupa - coarse parts of flax. The pronounciation of this Latin word being germanised before it passed into French. see also German Stoff - stuff.

 The sense of the Latin word is better preserved in the verb to stuff i e to cram, to  stop up. Middle French estouffer - to stifle. German stopfen to fill, stuff, quilt, from Late Latin stuppare to stop up, see also English verb to stop.

[Postumus]

Gratias ago P Pedant et Clanad,

That sounds like a good etymologicl dictionary - which?