- stalwart
- late 14c., Scottish variant of O.E. stælwierðe "good, serviceable," probably a contracted compound of staðol "foundation, support" (from P.Gmc. *stathlaz) + wierðe "good, excellent, worthy" (see worth). Another theory traces the first element of stælwierðe to O.E. stæl "place," from P.Gmc. *stælaz. In U.S. political history, applied 1877 by Blaine to Republicans who refused to give up their hostility to and distrust of the South.