Origin and history of stub

"precipitous, sheer, having a sharp slope," of cliffs, mountains, etc., Middle English stēpe, from Old English steap "high, lofty" (senses now obsolete), also "deep; prominent, projecting," from Proto-Germanic *staupa- (source also of Old Frisian stap "high, lofty," Middle High German *stouf).

This is held to be from PIE *steup-, an extended form of the root *(s)teu- (1) "to push, stick, knock, beat," with derivations referring to projecting objects (source also of Greek typtein "to strike," typos "a blow, mold, die;" Sanskrit tup- "harm," tundate "pushes, stabs;" Gothic stautan "push;" Old Norse stuttr "short"). But Boutkan is dubious of the wider grouping.

The sense of "precipitous" probably was in Old English. In Middle English also of strong men, loud voices, large bright eyes, and old age. The slang sense of "at a high price" is a U.S. coinage attested by 1856. Related: Steeply. The noun meaning "a steep place, a declivity" is from 1550s.

c. 1300, stuble, "stump of grain stalk left in the ground after reaping," from Old French estuble, estoble "stubble" (Anglo-French estuble, stuple; Modern French éteule), from Medieval Latin stubula, Vulgar Latin *stupla, variant and reduced forms of Latin stipula "stalk, straw" (see stipule).

As a collective noun by mid-14c. Probably reinforced in English by stub (n.). Transferred to bristles on a man's unshaven face by 1590s. Stubble-jumper as a contemptuous term for a prairie farmer is by 1946.