Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.
STARKED
Verb
starked
simple past tense and past participle of stark
Anagrams
• Radtkes, darkest, straked
Source: Wiktionary
STARK
Stark, a. [Compar. Starker; superl. Starkest.] Etym: [OE. stark stiff, strong, AS. stearc; akin to OS. starc strong, D. sterk, OHG. starc, starah, G. & Sw. stark, Dan. stærk, Icel. sterkr, Goth. gastaúrknan to become dried up, Lith. strëgti to stiffen, to freeze. Cf. Starch, a. & n.]
1. Stiff; rigid. Chaucer. Whose senses all were straight benumbed and stark. Spenser. His heart gan wax as stark as marble stone. Spenser. Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies. Shak. The north is not so stark and cold. B. Jonson.
2. Complete; absolute; full; perfect; entire. [Obs.] Consider the stark security The common wealth is in now. B. Jonson.
3. Strong; vigorous; powerful. A stark, moss-trooping Scot. Sir W. Scott. Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer. Beau. & Fl.
4. Severe; violent; fierce. [Obs.] "In starke stours." [i. e., in fierce combats]. Chaucer.
5. Mere; sheer; gross; entire; downright. He pronounces the citation stark nonsense. Collier. Rhetoric is very good or stark naught; there's no medium in rhetoric. Selden.
Stark, adv.
Definition: Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind. Shak. Held him strangled in his arms till he was stark dead. Fuller. Stark naked, wholly naked; quite bare. Strip your sword stark naked. Shak.
Note: According to Professor Skeat, "stark-naked" is derived from steort-naked, or start-naked, literally tail-naked, and hence wholly naked. If this etymology be true the preferable form is stark-naked.
Stark, v. t.
Definition: To stiffen. [R.] If horror have not starked your limbs. H. Taylor.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
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