The path up the mountain was very ____, making it hard to climb.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The mountain path was very ____, making it quite a difficult and tiring climb for the inexperienced hikers.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *(s)tew-
Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp-der.?
Proto-Germanic *staupaz
Proto-West Germanic *staup
Old English stēap
Middle English steep
English steep
From Middle English steep, from Old English stēap (“high”), from Proto-Germanic *staupaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp- (“to push, stick”).
Compare Old Frisian stāp ("high, towering"; > Modern Saterland Frisian stiep (“steep”)), Dutch stoop (“grand; proud”), Middle High German stouf (“towering cliff, precipice”), Middle High German stief (“steep”)). The Proto-Indo-European root (and related) has many and varied descendants, including English stub; compare also Scots stap (“to strike, to forcibly insert”).
The sense of “sharp slope” is attested circa 1200; the sense “expensive” is attested US 1856.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"They will be called upon to deal with freight trains of up to 900 tons over gradients considerably steeper than those of the Central Section—for example, the frequent stretches of 1 in 100 between Victoria and the Medway towns—and their running to fast schedules will include the haulage of the "Night Ferry", which may load up to as much as 700 tons, and fully-fitted trains of 30 or more heavy Continental train ferry wagons."
— 1959 March, “The 2,500 h.p. electric locomotives for the Kent Coast electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 123:
"Up these steep walkways cannelured for footpurchase, the free passage of roaches."
— 1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, page 21:
"[…] Category Two implement hitches and doubled high-traction agricultural tires hung four to each massive rear axle to breast the steepest, softest dune or guckiest swamp […]"
— 2010, Robert Beeman, No More Time for Sorrow, page 133:
"Her ears and thoughts in steep amaze erected"
— 1596, George Chapman, De Guiana, carmen Epicum:
"It ended precipitously in a dark and narrow ravine, formed on the other side by an opposite mountain, the lofty steep of which was crested by a city gently rising on a gradual slope"
— 1833, Benjamin Disraeli, The Wondrous Tale of Alroy: