stuff: [14] Stuff is ultimately the same word as stop. It comes via Old French estoffer and prehistoric Germanic *stopfōn, earlier *stoppōn (source of English stop), from late Latin stuppāre ‘plug, stop up’. This originally denoted literally ‘stop up a hole with a plug of coarse fibres’, for it was derived from Latin stuppa ‘coarse fibres, tow’, a borrowing from Greek stúppē. The noun stuff comes from Old French estoffe ‘provisions’, a derivative of estoffer. => stop
stuff (n.)
early 14c., "quilted material worn under chain mail," from Old French estoffe "quilted material, furniture, provisions" (Modern French étoffe), from estoffer "to equip or stock," which according to French sources is from Old High German stopfon "to plug, stuff," or from a related Frankish word (see stop (v.)), but OED has "strong objections" to this.
Sense extended to material for working with in various trades (c. 1400), then "matter of an unspecified kind" (1570s). Meaning "narcotic, dope, drug" is attested from 1929. To know (one's) stuff "have a grasp on a subject" is recorded from 1927.
stuff (v.)
mid-14c., "furnish with" (goods, provisions, etc.), also "reinforce" (troops), from Old French estofer "pad, upholster, fit out" (Modern French étoffer), from estoffe, and probably also in part from stuff (n.).
From c. 1400 as "fill, cram full; fill (the belly) with food or drink, gorge;" from early 15c. as "to clog" (the sinuses, etc.); from late 14c. as "fill (a mattress, etc.) with padding, line with padding;" also in the cookery sense, in reference to filing the interior of a pastry or the cavity of a fowl or beast. The ballot-box sense is attested from 1854, American English; in expressions of contempt and suggestive of bodily orifices, it dates from 1952.
实用例句
1. I don't want any more of that heavy stuff.
我再也不想碰那种麻烦事了。
来自柯林斯例句
2. These chaps know their stuff after seven years of war.
7年的战争过后，这些家伙都成了作战行家。
来自柯林斯例句
3. There's a reason why women don't read this stuff; it's not funny.
女人不读这种东西是有原因的，它并不好笑。
来自柯林斯例句
4. They insist on tastier chocolate than the anaemic British stuff.
他们坚持要比淡而无味的英国货味道更好的巧克力。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The stuff has never been properly logged and labelled.
