Etymology

step-

Today it means: A prefix used before father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, child, and so forth, to indicate that the person being identified is not a blood relative but is related through the marriage of a parent. Full definition →

Middle English step- ← Old English stēop- ← Proto-West Germanic *steupa-
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*(s)tewp-“to push, strike”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*steupa-“orphaned, step-”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*steupa-
  4. Old English · inherited fromstēop-“deprived of a relative, step-”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromstep-
  6. English todaystep-

From Middle English step-, from Old English stēop- (“deprived of a relative, step-”, prefix), from Proto-West Germanic *steupa-, from Proto-Germanic *steupa- (“orphaned, step-”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp- (“to push, strike”). Cognate with Scots step- (“step-”), West Frisian stiep- (“step-”), Dutch stief- (“step-”), Low German steef- (“step-”), German stief- (“step-”), Swedish styv- (“step-”), Icelandic stjúp- (“step-”). Related to Old English stīepan (“to deprive, bereave”). Not, however, related to the familiar English noun or verb step.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*(s)tewp- all →

stopprototypesteeparchetype

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.