Stock Means a Tree Trunk, and Everything Grew From It
Stock is goods held for sale, shares in a company, or a cooking liquid. All descend from a word meaning tree trunk.
Stock is a supply of goods, a share in a company, farm animals, or a savoury cooking liquid. Old English *stocc* meant a tree trunk or log, and every sense grows outward from it: the *stock* of a gun is its wooden body, *livestock* is the standing capital of a farm, family *stock* is the trunk from which a lineage branches, and financial stock is the fund a business stands on. Cooking stock is separate, from the idea of a base kept standing in the pot.
- Goods held. *Out of stock.*
- Company shares. *Stocks and bonds.*
- Farm animals. *Livestock.*
- A cooking liquid. *Chicken stock.*
- Old English — *stocc*, a trunk. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | stock | Stock. |
| Plural | stocks | Stocks. |
| Verb | stock | Stock the shelves. |
| Compound | livestock | Livestock. |
| Old English | stocc | A trunk. |
- The item is out of stock.Retail.
- He bought stock in the company.Finance.
- Simmer the bones for stock.Cooking.
Everything that grew from a tree trunk
- Gunstock — the wooden body of a firearm
- Livestock — the standing capital of a farm
- Stock of a family — the trunk a lineage branches from
- The stocks — a wooden punishment frame
- Stock still — as motionless as a tree trunk
Old English *stocc*, a tree trunk, stump or log, of Germanic origin.
Why is a company share called stock?
From the sense of a trunk or fund on which a business stands, the capital that supports everything else.
Why is a gun's body called a stock?
Because it was made of wood, and stocc meant a piece of tree trunk.