# "stiff" and its meaning/etymology
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stiff-and-its-meaning-etymology/307410
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 8, 2005, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stiff-and-its-meaning-etymology/307410 "2005-06-08T04:50:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@monkeyfist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monkeyfist)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stiff-and-its-meaning-etymology/307410/1 "2005-06-08T04:50:01Z")
I’m asking how the word “stiff” came to be used in the sense of, “I got stiffed.”
The [online etymology dictionary](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=stiff&searchmode=none) clearly states that the word comes from “stiff” as in a dead person.
I guess I just don’t see the logical flow from “dead guy” to “poor tipper” or “treated inequitably”. The [OED](http://www.etymonline.com) flippantly remarks that dead guys don’t tip well, but that seems like a lame copout to me. Do any of you have any thoughts or cites on this?
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stiff-and-its-meaning-etymology/307410/2 "2005-06-08T05:58:16Z")
Nothing factual, more of a WAG, but I can see the noun “stiff” meaning “corpse” generalizing to other sorts of inactivity or failure to take an expected action, such as tipping. No great leap of logic needed.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stiff-and-its-meaning-etymology/307410/3 "2005-06-08T07:18:26Z")
> [@monkeyfist](#):
>
> I’The [online etymology dictionary](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=stiff&searchmode=none) clearly states that the word comes from “stiff” as in a dead person.
No it doesn’t – it just offers that as a possibility. It’s a guess – and not a particularly good one, in my opinion. (I think it’s Douglas Harper’s contribution – there’s no attribution to the OED.) It seems that the idea is that it’s _ultimately_ traceable back to the noun sense of “stiff,” meaning “corpse,” through the derived noun sense of “losing proposition,” as applied to racehorses. Maybe, but it seems like an unnecessary stretch.
To me, it makes more sense as derived from the use of the adjectival senses of “stiff.” ie; “rigid,” “not easily bent,” “difficult to overcome,” “stubborn,” etc.
The more usual use of the word, as “I know this one – he’s a stiff customer,” could easily have been “verbed” over time, due to the frequency of opportunity for expression and the tendency toward brevity that busy people display.
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### Author:  [@monkeyfist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monkeyfist)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stiff-and-its-meaning-etymology/307410/4 "2005-06-08T07:44:33Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#):
>
> No it doesn’t – it just offers that as a possibility. It’s a guess – and not a particularly good one, in my opinion. (I think it’s Douglas Harper’s contribution – there’s no attribution to the OED.)
I should clarify, that by OED, i meant Online Etymology Dictionary. I did make it a link to the Online Etymology Dictionary to avoid this sort of confusion, apparently unsuccessfully so. Sorry for the confusion.
I did not consult the _real_ OED, Oxford English Dictionary, in this matter.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stiff-and-its-meaning-etymology/307410/5 "2005-06-08T08:09:34Z")
Ha! I followed your links, and the possibility that “OED” might stand for something in addition to _the_ OED escaped me entirely. (The front page’s "The basic sources of this work are \ “Oxford English Dictionary” reinforced that a bit.) :smack:
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### Author:  [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stiff-and-its-meaning-etymology/307410/6 "2005-06-08T08:26:20Z")
> [@monkeyfist](#):
>
> I should clarify, that by OED, i meant Online Etymology Dictionary.
Yeah, you should. When I saw OED and “flippantly” in the same sentence I did a double take.
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### Author:  [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stiff-and-its-meaning-etymology/307410/7 "2005-06-08T17:35:46Z")
To answer the OP, I always thought stiffing someone as in not tipping came from stiff-arming as in pushing aside. Picture the faithful retainer standing with hand out being stiff-armed…
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### Author:  [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stiff-and-its-meaning-etymology/307410/8 "2005-06-08T19:06:32Z")
Ever heard of rigor mortis?
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### Author:  [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stiff-and-its-meaning-etymology/307410/9 "2005-06-08T19:10:20Z")
> [@ouryL](#):
>
> Ever heard of rigor mortis?
[What is rigor mortis?](http://www.deathonline.net/decomposition/body_changes/rigor_mortis.htm)
Rigor mortis is the state a body reaches when the oxygen supply to the muscles ceases but the cells continue to respire anaerobically (without oxygen). This causes lactic acid to build up, which affects the muscles causing stiffening - rigor mortis. Bodies become stiff after about three hours and remain that way for around 36 hours. Rigor mortis ceases as the body cells die, enzymes are released and the cells decompose.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stiff-and-its-meaning-etymology/307410/10 "2005-06-08T21:11:32Z")
Personally, I think this guy’s on the right track:
[http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin\_board/39/messages/288.html](http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/39/messages/288.html)
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stiff-and-its-meaning-etymology/307410/11 "2005-06-08T22:40:55Z")
> [@ouryL](#):
>
> Ever heard of rigor mortis?
I think everyone’s clear on why corpses are called “stiffs.” It’s less clear that the concept of “stiffing someone” has any connection at all to dead bodies.
Saying that we say non-tippers “stiff” people “because dead guys don’t tip either” is like suggesting that the noun sense of “burk” (stupid or disagreeable person) is probably derived from the verb sense of “burk” (murder) because it’s easy to entertain thoughts of doing away with such a person. It sounds _sort of_ plausible, if you stretch a bit, but it’s dead wrong.
Both the “stiff-arm” theory and the possibility that the it’s a “verbing” of the [adjectival sense](http://machaut.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/WEBSTER.sh?WORD=stiff) of “not easily subdued; unyielding; stubborn; obstinate; pertinacious” are much more likely to be the correct origin of the term.
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### Author:  [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stiff-and-its-meaning-etymology/307410/12 "2005-06-09T05:07:56Z")
May be another way of saying you got screwed? 😉
After all you did get the shaft!