STY  , an enclosed

place or pen to keep pigs in . The word means properly a pen or enclosure for any domestic animal, as is seen from its occurrence in Scandinavian languages and in German, e.g . Swed. and Icel. stia, pen, gdsstia, goose-pen, swinstia, pig-sty, Ger . Steige, hen-coop, Schweinsteige, pig-sty . It is usual to refer the word . to stigan, to climb, which would connect it with stair and stile and with the Gr. vmmiXety . Some take the original meaning to be an enclosure raised on steps, others, in view of the Gr. o ro&Xoc, row, would take the basic sense to be a row of pales or stakes forming a pen or enclosure; cf. the use of (praxes for poles supporting nets to catch game in ()Cen . Gyn . 6. ro) . If the derivation from stigan is correct, the word is the same as that meaning a small inflamed swelling, tumour or abscess on the eyelid, the Old English word for which was stigend, i.e. short for stigend edge, a rising or swelling eye, hence in M .