Forms: 1 steort, (3 steort- in comb.), 3–7 stert, 7 stirt, 4–6 sterte, 5 storte, 6 starte, 6– start. [Com. Teut.: OE. steort masc. corresponds to OFris. stert, stirt (WFris. stirt, NFris. stört), (M)LG. stert, MDu. staert (mod.Du. staart), OHG., mod.G. sterz, ON. stert-r (Sw. Da. stjert):—OTeut. *sterto-z.]
† 1. The tail of an animal. Obs.
The explanation ‘tail’ is given in many dictionaries from the 17th c. onwards, and in many modern dialect glossaries, but app. only as an assumed general or primary meaning accounting for the specific senses and the use in redstart. Evidence of any modern currency of sense 1 is wanting.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss., C 196. Cauda, steort.
c. 888. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxv. § 7. Ceruerus … ongan onfæʓnian mid his steorte & pleʓian wiþ hine.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 9. Ðe leun … Draʓeð dust wið his stert.
a. 1300. Havelok, 2823. Demden him to binden faste Vp on an asse … His nose went unto þe stert.
2. A handle (of a vessel, handbell, broom, etc.).
c. 1325. Gloss. W. de Bibbesw., in Wright, Voc., 168. Le manuel e le tenoun, [glossed] the handele and the sterte.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 474/2. Stert, of a handylle of a vessel, ansa.
1512. in Archæologia, XLI. 344. For … mending ye start of ye sanctus bell ix d.
1521. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), V. 129. To ychon of my broder sonys a sylver spoyne with cuttid starttis.
1562. in J. R. Boyle, Hedon (1875), App. p. ccvi. A olde panne with a start and a candelsticke.
1566. Engl. Ch. Furniture (Peacock, 1866), 33. Item one handbell broken the start of yt and sold to Johnne Chamberlaine and he haith made a morter thereof.
1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 483. A Pottenger … where-unto a long start … is suffixed.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., Start, a handle, as ‘beesom start.’
1862. C. C. Robinson, Dial. Leeds, 420. Start, the handle of a vessel. ‘Pot-start.’
† b. The tail of a plow: PLOUGH-START.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 474/2. Stert, of a plowe (or plowstert), stiua [printed stina].
1530. Palsgr., 276/1. Stert of a plow, queue de la chareue.
† 3. The footstalk of a fruit. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 474/2. Stert, of an appull or oþer frute, pediculus.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., IV. 387. Or make a diche in long, and take a rynde As long as hit; in that the storte [v.r. stortes] doo Of pomgarnat.
1530. Palsgr., 276/1. Stert of frute, queue de frvit.
1600. Surflet, Country Farm, III. l. 543. Choose the fairest sowre cherries … cutting off their starts at the halfe, and afterward boile them.
1672. Hoole, Comenius’ Vis. World, xiv. 30. The Cherry hangeih by a long start [pediolo].
† b. The stalk of a plant. Obs. rare.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 20. Dernolde groweth vp streyght lyke an hye grasse, and hath longe sedes on eyther syde the sterte.
† c. The stem (of a candlestick). Obs.
1696. Patrick, Comm. Exod. xxv. (1697), 502. Here is nothing said of the foot of it [sc. the candlestick]…. Nor doth he mention the length of the start or trunk.
† 4. An outgrowth, a projecting point or spur; esp. a point of a stag’s horn. Obs.
Perhaps this may belong to START sb.2
1575. Turberv., Faulconrie, 283. The second … shall serue to cawterise ye nares without danger or hurt to ye little stert yt groweth vp in the midle of the nares.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. lxiv. 93. The first Crowfoote … bringeth forth vpon each side of the leafe three or foure shorte startes or branches.
1623. Cockeram, I. s.v. Pollard, Beame is that whereon the starts of the head growes.
1633. Gerard, Part. Descr. Somerset (1900), 222. Ingotts of copper … rudely cast having on ye back side some 5 sterts or points, some fewer.
1658. Phillips, Torch-Royal,… the next start in a Stag’s head growing above the Royal.
1721. Bailey, Brow-Antler, the first Start that grows on the head of a Stag.
5. Mech. a. The innermost segment of the bucket of a water-wheel.
1547. Rec. Elgin (New Spalding Club, 1903), I. 90. He cuttit thwa startis to ane mylln quhyll.
1611. Cotgr., Les rayeres d’un moulin à eau, the armes, or starts of the wheele of a water-mill.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVIII. 904/2. The bucket consists of a start AB, an arm BC, and a wrest CD, concentric with the rim.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 75. The partitions, which determine the form of the buckets, consist of three different planes or boards…. We have heard them called the start or shoulder, the arm, and the wrest.
1829. Nat. Philos., I. Mech. (U. K. S.), I. v. 20. This bucket is formed of three planes; AB is in the direction of the radius of the wheel, and is called the start, or shoulder.
b. The shaft or lever of a horse-mill.
1771. Gentl. Mag., XLI. 57. The upper end or spindle of the shaft … with a square tenon fixes into a mortice in the start or leaver … very securely by a crank of iron which is screwed upon this start.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 75. A piece of wood was fixed to the beam, or what is commonly called the start of the mill, and the oxen were yoked to it by chains.
1812. Hodgson, in Raine, Mem. (1857), I. 101. The starts or shafts of the gin.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 238. Start. A lever for working a gin to which the horse is attached.
6. Comb. † stert-pan, a pan with a handle; start-post, the arm carrying the float of a scoop-wheel used in draining; † start-rope (meaning obscure).
1459. Paston Lett., I. 489. Item, j. lytyll *stert panne of sylver.
1888. W. H. Wheeler, Drainage Fens & Low Lands, v. 73. The rim is cast with sockets, in which are fixed with pins, oak arms, or *‘start posts.’ To the start posts are bolted boards.
1356. in Pipe Roll 32 Edw. III., m. 34/1. Reddit compotum … de x. *stertropes, xlij vptieghes, xliij bowlynes [etc.]. Ibid., m. 34/2. j copula de baksteys, i sterterope.
