I am looking at the word, steko, [a transliteration] in the Greek New Testament. It means “stand firm.” I’m wondering if the English word “stake” has the same derivation. I can see the similarity, but have not found any connection yet.
There must be something to it: if you look up “stake” in Etymonline, right at the beginning you find “pointed stick or post; stick of wood sharpened at one end for driving into the ground”. Such a sharpened pole would definitely stand firm (provided that the soil is firm enough itself), thus the connection to στήκω looks quite plausible.
More cognates of στήκω might easily be “stecco” (Italian for stick or twig) and “stehen” (German for stand).
Quite an interesting word indeed, even though I had to rummage the web for it as it wasn’t mentioned in my old Greek dictionary.