step-comb. form

Old English stéop- (earlier stéup-, Northumbrian stéap-), corresponding to Old Frisian stiap-, stiep- (North Frisian stjap-, sjap-, stîp-, West Frisian stiep-), Middle Low German (irregular) stêf- (modern Low German staif-), (Middle) Dutch (irregular) stief-, Old High German stiuf- (Middle High German, modern German stief-), Old Norse stjúp-, (Middle Swedish stiup-, stiuf-; modern Swedish stiuf-, styf-; Danish stif-, stiv-, now superseded by sted-):—Old Germanic *steupo-; a Common Germanic combining form (not recorded in Gothic), prefixed to terms of relationship (as son, father, brother) to form designations for the degrees of affinity resulting from the remarriage of a widowed parent. The primitive sense of the word is indicated by the use of Old English stéopbearn, -cild (stepbairn n., stepchild n.) for ‘orphan’, and by the cognates, Old English ástíeped bereaved, Old High German stiufen (also ar-, bistiufen) to bereave. Etymologically, stepfather (stepmother) might be rendered ‘one who becomes a father (mother) to an orphan’, and stepson (stepdaughter) ‘an orphan who becomes a son (a daughter)’ by the marriage of the surviving parent. It is uncertain which of these two applications of the prefix is the original one; all branches of Germanic (except Gothic) have both, and also the extended use in stepbrother, stepsister. Old Norse had shortened forms, stjúpa stepmother, stjúp-r (modern Icelandic stjúpi) stepson. In Dutch and Low German, and in later Scandinavian, the p of Old Germanic *steupo- is anomalously represented by f instead of p. This is probably not due to High German influence, but to assimilation to the following f in the compound stepfather (cf. the early Middle English form steffadyr). A solitary Old English example of this anomaly occurs in the form stéfdohtor (quot. 912 at stepdaughter n.). Occasional forms of the prefix in Middle English are stip- (styp-), sti-, ste-, stappe-.In 1755 Johnson says that stepmother is the only one of the compounds of step- that has survived in general use. At the present day stepfather is hardly less frequently used, and stepson, -daughter, -child, -brother, -sister are by no means rare, while stepdame occurs in somewhat archaistic language (chiefly figurative). In the 16th and 17th centuries a few writers employed the prefix in nonce-formations which would now seem un-English, as step-devil, a term of abhorrence for a stepmother; step-duchess, the stepmother of a duke's children; step-lord, one who has the position of a lord without the true lord's affection for his subjects; step-Tully, one who assumes the function of a Cicero. New formations with the prefix, denoting actual relations of affinity, do not appear earlier than the 19th cent.; in the latter part of the century they became somewhat common, chiefly as more or less jocular nonce-words, though one or two of them, as step-nephew, step-niece, have obtained some currency in serious use.The concept of orphanage has recently ceased to be essential to the meaning of the step- combinations. Consequently, the relationships of step-brother, -sister, etc., may be considered to refer reciprocally to children of a later as well as a former marriage: i.e. step-brother = half-brother, etc. A step-parent may be created by marriage to a divorced or a bereaved person.The older compounds of step- are in this Dictionary treated as main words; the following examples illustrate the extended applications of the prefix from the 16th cent. onwards.