Meaning: stick

Illustrative Context

He carried a stick under his arm.

Disambiguation

The noun stick, as a long, thin piece of wood, not the verb to stick (i.e. adhere).

Target Sense

• The most generic term for a stick in the prototypical sense of a relatively long piece of wood, essentially left in the shape in which it grew as a branch, and thin by comparison to its length, albeit thick and stiff enough that it does not easily bend.
• As a generic term, the target lexeme should be applicable to sticks of a range of thicknesses and lengths, but prototypically should at least be applicable to cases ranging between the length of a stick that one might throw for a dog to fetch, up to the size of a stick that one might use as a walking aid.
• Some languages may not have a generic term that closely matches the range of the English lexeme stick, but a range of terms specifying size, function, etc.. In this case, select the most non-specific, default term within the basic vocabulary, the most free of narrower and more specific connotations.
• Avoid lexemes that refer predominantly to any narrower and more specific type, size or use of a stick: e.g. a stave as a weapon to strike with or a tool to hit or beat with, a staff or rod as an emblem of power or authority, a walking stick, a stick used for planting, for digging, for starting a fire, and so on.
• Avoid lexemes that specifically contrast with the basic stick lexeme in that they serve to highlight relatively smaller size, e.g. twig, French baguette, bâtonnet.
• Avoid lexemes that do not inherently and specifically apply to sticks formed of solid wood from a branch of a tree: e.g. cane, pole, rod.
• Avoid vaguer lexemes that do not inherently refer to the form as long and thin, e.g. literally just (piece of) wood, French (bout de) bois, rather than target bâton.
• Target the most neutral register: avoid terms that are literary, out-dated or slang in the generic meaning as defined here, e.g. stave, staff.
• Compare with the similar approach to considerations of size in the separate IE-CoR meanings stone, leaf, bird, river, lake, and forest.