A Friend in West Virginia, Part Ten

As time passed, the level of intensity of my friend's anxiety was really demonstrated when he prepared to buy a new truck. His F-150 truck certainly symbolized his need to try to demonstrate his masculinity and image, something not uncommon. During the days leading up to his going to see, and to likely buy, the truck, he told me he was literally sick with worry and sleeping problems, and that this was not uncommon for him. From what he told me, he is a heavy smoker, a habit that seemingly goes with many anxious people. His anxiety and the smoking may well have contributed to some illnesses he periodically suffered, requiring medical treatment. 

WORD HISTORY:
Stow: This word, related to both "stand" and "stead," goes back to Indo-European "steh," which had the meaning "stand." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "stowon," which meant, "a place, a stead, a room or place to keep things." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) the noun "stow," with the same meanings, and which then became "stowe," before returning to "stow," and the form "stowage." The compound "stowaway" is, of course, still commonly heard in English, but don't tell on me. The city of Bristol, in southwestern England, was originally called, "Brycgstow;" that is, "bridge place," or, "place at/of the bridge," before the eventual contraction to "Bristol." The verb form naturally goes back to the same basic Indo European root, which then gave Old Germanic "stowonan," which meant, "to dam up to hold water, to hold in by barrier." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "stowijanan," meaning, "to hold back by hemming in." This then became "stowen," before the modern form. Also the idea of putting items into a part of a ship to "stow them," likely from the idea of a secure area, "the hold," into which things were packed to keep them from moving around much while the ship was at sea, "seems" to go back to the nautical lingo of the Hanseatic League (a trade federation), which was largely made up of Low German, Dutch and Flemish speakers, all very close relatives of English, even more so in those times, and that meaning was borrowed from one or all of those languages circa 1500, in the sense they all likely reinforced the meaning in English. That meaning continued into modern times with other means of transport. By the way, "stow" is also related to "store," which also traces back to the same Indo European root, but which came to English as a borrowing by way of French, from Latin. The connection of "holding things in," is present in both the Germanic forms and the Latin, and goes way back to ancient times.    
  
Other forms in the Germanic languages: German has the noun "Stau," meaning, "barrier, obstruction to flowing liquid or to moving objects," although this exact meaning seems to have been borrowed from Low German, "apparently" in the 1600s, and indeed, it is also used in a modern compound, "Verkehrsstau," which means, "traffic jam;" literally in English, "traffic stow." German also has the verb, "stauen," meaning, "to dam up, to build up/accumulate (water, blood or other fluid build up, for example), also "to stow," although often in modern times in the derived "verstauen." Low German Saxon "stauen" (verb), "to stop or hold back the flow of water," Dutch has a couple of forms, "stuwen" (to bar, to obstruct, to stow) and "stouwen" (to stow), Norwegian has "stuvning" (medical usage for "swelling with fluid, edema"), Swedish "stuva" (to stow, to bundle; that is, 'something held together'). I could not find modern forms in Danish or Icelandic, although their ancestor, Old Norse, had "stó," nor could I find a modern form in West Frisian, although Frisian once had "sto."