Forms: 1 stéor, 3 steore, 4, 6 ster, 4–7 stere, steere, 5 steyr, sterre, 6 sterr, styre, stiere, (sthere), 6–7 steare, 8 stear, 4– steer. [OE. stéor masc. = MLG. stêr, MDu., Du. stier, OHG. stior (MHG., mod.G. stier), Goth. stiur:—OTeut. type *steuro-z:—pre-Teut. *(s)teuro-s, f. Indogermanic root *st(h)eu- to be fixed or rigid; the form without s is represented by ON. þjór-r (Sw. tjur, Da. tyr).
According to some the word goes back to an Indogermanic *sthewəro- (Skr. sthavira) stout. Connection with Gr. ταῦρος, L. taurus, and their cognates is doubtful.]
A young ox, esp. one that has been castrated.
In the United States and the Colonies applied to male beef-cattle of any age.
a. 700. Epinal Gloss., 596. Ludarius, steor.
c. 1290. S. James, 182, in S. Eng. Leg., 39. Þe Bollokes and þe ȝoungue steores.
c. 1340. Nominale (Skeat), 723. Boef bonet et ienyce, Oxe stere and hefere.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1291. Aboute his Chaar ther wenten white Alauntz, Twenty and mo, as grete as any steer.
1463–4. Compota Domest. (Abbotsford Club, 1836), 48. in x bouiculis vocatis steres emptis.
1500. Ortus Vocab., Buculus, a stote or a sterre.
1549. N. C. Wills (Surtees, 1908), 204. A pied stere of foure yeres.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. xi. 42. And Aeolus faire daughter Arne hight, For whom he turnd him selfe into a Steare.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. ii. 103. Like youthfull Steeres, vnyoak’d.
1638. trans. Bacon’s Hist. Life & D. (Mosley), 38. Old spent Oxen being put into fresh pastures, recover new tender flesh, and as sweete as if it were of a Steere.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 222. Steers will not be beef till four or five years old.
1808. Scott, Marm., V. iii. Or musing, who would guide his steer To till the fallow land.
1830. Hobart, Town Almanack, 105. Mr. Lord’s men … had been compelled to ride after a small herd, and to shoot a steer at random on the plain.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss, Steer, a bullock, after it is one year old, till it enters its fourth year, when it is termed an ox.
1898. Rider Haggard, Farmer’s Year (1899), 64. There are four red-poll steers tied up fatting in a shed.
b. attrib.
1537. Bury Wills (Camden), 132. A rede stere calfe.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, iii. 51. The flesh of Steeres, which we commonly call Steere-beefe.
1676. Lond. Gaz., No. 1126/4. Stolen or strayed…, two Steer Runts.
1817–8. Cobbett, Resid. U.S. (1822), 175. Steer-beef is not nearly so good as ox-beef.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 106. Eight of the best steer calves should be brought into work when three years old.
