story

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈstɔː.ɹi/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈstɔ.ɹi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːɹi

From Middle English storie, storye, from Anglo-Norman estorie by aphesis. The Anglo-Norman word itself comes from Latin historia, a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἱστορίᾱ (historíā, “learning through research”). Doublet of history and storey.

• storie (obsolete)

story (plural stories)

1. An account of real or fictional events.

   Synonym: tome

   • 1673, William Temple, An Essay upon the Advancement of Trade in Ireland:

     ...it must be exploded for fabulous, with other relics of ancient story...

   • June 1861, Edinburgh Review, The Kingdom of Italy

     Venice, with its unique city and its impressive story...

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed. They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.

   • 2006 Feb. 17, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 4:

     So, what happened?
     It's quite a long story actually...
     Really? Don't worry about it then.

   • 2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55:

     Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.

   The book tells the story of two roommates.

2. A lie, fiction.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:lie

   You’ve been telling stories again, haven’t you?

3. (US, colloquial, usually pluralized) A soap opera.

   Synonym: serial

   What will she do without being able to watch her stories?

   • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:

     He stood on the doorstep for a minute, listening for sounds inside the house — a radio, a TV tuned to one of the stories […]

4. (obsolete) History.
   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC:

     […] who is so unread or so uncatechis'd in story, that hath not heard of many sects refusing books as a hindrance, and preserving their doctrine unmixt for many ages, only by unwritt'n traditions.

5. A sequence of events, or a situation, such as might be related in an account.

   Synonym: narrative

   What's the story with him?

   I tried it again; same story, no error message, nothing happened.

   The images it captured help tell a story of extreme loss: 25 percent of its ice and four of its 19 glaciers have disappeared since 1957.

6. (social media, sometimes capitalized) A chronological collection of pictures or short videos published by a user on an application or website that is typically only available for a short period.
   • 2015 July 14, Aisha Gani, “Mecca worshippers stream their stories live on Snapchat”, in The Guardian‎:

     Worshippers in Mecca are streaming their stories live on Snapchat, opening up the Saudi city to non-Muslims online.

   • 2016 August 2, Mike Isaac, “Instagram Takes a Page From Snapchat, and Takes Aim at It, Too”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     People can make stories public or private, and can choose if they want only a subsection of their followers to view them.

   • 2016 August 12, Hannah Jane Parkinson, “Instagram Stories: who cares about your commute or cleansing routine?”, in The Guardian‎:

     I have come across a few (OK, two) Stories that have made me laugh. And when that happens, the medium frustrates even more with its fleetingness. But here’s hoping the Instagram Stories on my feed improve as time goes by. The End.

   • 2023 October 23, Rachel Varina, “How to Get Over a Breakup So You Can *Actually* Move On and Heal”, in Cosmopolitan‎:

     While it might seem harmless to sneak the occasional peek at their Story or see what they’ve been watching on Netflix, Fortin says you’re leaving yourself open to “potentially stressful situations that may come at a time when you're gaining momentum in your progress.” Think about it—if their number isn’t blocked, you’ll jump at each noti wondering if it’s them.

7. (computing) Ellipsis of user story.

• (soap opera): Popularized in the 1950s, when soap operas were often billed as "continuing stories", the term "story" to describe a soap opera fell into disuse by the 21st century and is now used chiefly among older people and in rural areas. Other English-speaking countries used the term at its zenith as a "loaned" word from the United States.

• Sranan Tongo: tori
  • Aukan: toli
  • → Dutch: tori
• → Welsh: stori
• → Persian: استوری (estori)
• → Portuguese: estória

story (third-person singular simple present stories, present participle storying, simple past and past participle storied)

1. (transitive) To tell as a story; to relate or narrate about.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:

     How worthy he is I will leave to appear hereafter, rather than story him in his own hearing.

   • 1648, John Wilkins, Mathematical Magick:

     It is storied of the brazen colossus in Rhodes, that it was seventy cubits high.

   • 2004 January 10, Galen Strawson, “Review: Making Stories by Jerome Bruner”, in The Guardian‎:

     The further claim is that we create or invent the self specifically by “writing” and “storying” it.

2. (transitive, intransitive, social media, sometimes capitalized) To post a story (chronological collection of pictures or short videos) on an application or website.
   • 2018 February 12, Josh Duboff, “Reese Witherspoon Is Natalie Portman’s Instagram Guru”, in Vanity Fair‎:

     But Portman, quite self-deprecating about her social-media savvy, says she . . . isn’t quite fully at ease yet with the world of double-taps and geotags and storying.

   • 2019 June 24, Christian Allaire, “Jennifer Aniston, We Beg You, Get on Instagram”, in Vogue‎:

     I hereby argue that the only thing that would make these mini Friends reunions truly complete would be contributions from Aniston herself, who decidedly does not have an Instagram page. Imagine the content possibilities: Aniston looking flawless and chic by the pool; Aniston Storying herself shopping at Gelson’s; […]

Alternative form of what's the story (“how are you?”)[1]

story

1. (idiomatic, Ireland, Dublin) Used as a greeting, short for what's the story?
   • 2012, Colin Murphy, Donal O'Dea, “18 - Saying 'What's the story?'”, in More Stuff Irish People Love‎, 2017 edition, The O'Brien Press Ltd, →ISBN:

     *Any non-Irish person should be aware that it is not necessary to take the question literally i.e. one shouldn't start to explain your life story when greeted with 'What's the story?' rather they should respond in kind e.g. Greeting: 'What's the story?' Response: 'What's the story?' There are several variations on the theme, the most popular being 'What's the story, bud?' or the pithy : 'Story, bud?' or the pithier still 'Story?'

• what's the story
• what's the story, bud
• story, bud

story (plural stories)

1. (chiefly US) Alternative spelling of storey.

   Our shop was on the fourth story of the building, so we had to install an elevator.

   • 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:

     The lower story of the market-house was open on all four of its sides to the public square.

   • 1994, David K. Jordan, “The Popular Practice of Religion”, in Cultural Change in Postwar Taiwan‎, Westview Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 139:

     An astonishing proportion of village people had replaced their old houses with new ones built of better materials, often two stories high.

   • 2016, Xiaobing Li, “Art and Architecture”, in Modern China‎, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 292:

     The Wooden Pagoda in Ying County of Shanxi, built 1,000 years ago, has nine stories and is 234 feet high.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:story.

• ryots, stroy, tyros

Borrowed from Old French estoree, past participle of estorer. Alternatively, the same word as storie.

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɔriː(ə)/, /ˈstɔːriː(ə)/

story (plural storyes) (rare)

1. A level of a building.
2. A line of paddles on a ship.

• English: story, storey

• “stōrī(e, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-04-05.

From Old French estorie, estoire.

story

1. Alternative form of storie

Unadapted borrowing from English story.

story n (plural story-uri)

1. story

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *starъ.

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɔrɪ/
• Syllabification: sto‧ry

story (comparative starszy, superlative nostarszy, no derived adverb)

1. old (not young)

   Antonym: mlôdy

2. old (not new)

   Antonym: nôwy

• Lorentz, Friedrich (1912) “stǻu̯rï”, in Slovinzisches Wörterbuch‎ (in German), volume 2, Saint Petersburg: ОРЯС ИАН, page 1096