Masculine

Stau

Sentences

Meaning

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Gibt es einen Stau auf dem Weg zur Arbeit ?

Is there a traffic jam on the way to work?

(masculine, strong) congestion, stagnancy of water or anything dammed or otherwise backed-up
(abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, especially, masculine, strong) ellipsis of Verkehrsstau (“traffic jam”)
(masculine, strong) weir

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ʃtaʊ̯/

Borrowed from Low German

Cognate with Dutch

In summary

18th century, from Low German Stau, from Middle Low German stouw, stouwe (“weir”), probably a back-formation from stouwen (“to stop, dam”), from Old Saxon *stōwa, from Proto-West Germanic *stōu, ultimately derived from Proto-Germanic *stōō (“place”). Cognate with Dutch stuw. Alternatively the Dutch and Low German forms could be inherited from the Germanic noun (like English stow), but the sense makes a new deverbal derivation more likely.