stiff [OE] An Old English word, stiff goes back to a Germanic root meaning ‘inflexible’ and shares an Indo-European ancestry with Latin stipare ‘press, pack’ source of constipate [LME] and via Spanish the stevedore [L18th] who packs away cargo. As a noun meaning ‘a dead body’ it dates back to the USA of the 1850s. The stiffs, meaning the reserve team of a sports club, is a 1950s use. See also starve.

The stiff upper lip [E19th], a quality of uncomplaining stoicism so often thought of as peculiarly British is North American in origin.