Watkins' The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots
says it comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *kel-¹.
*kel-¹ To cover, conceal, save.
I. O-grade form *kol-.
1a. HELL, from OE hell. 1b. HEL, from ON Hel, the underworld, goddess of death. Both a and b from Gmc haljō, the underworld (< 'concealed place').
2a. HALL, from OIE heall, hall; 2b VALHALLA, from ON höll, hall. Both a and b from Gmc *hallō , covered place, hall.
3. Suffixed form *kol-eyo-. COLEUS, COLEOPTERAN, COLEOPTILE, COLEORHIZA, from Gk koleon, koleos, sheath.
There are also entries II, III, and IV, respectively representing the I-E sources of other words.
- Zero-grade *kḷ- (HOLD, HULL, HOLE, HOLSTER, CLANDESTINE, APOCALYPSE)
- E-grade *kel- (HELM, WILLIAM, OCCULT, COLOR, CELLAR, SUPERCILIOUS)
- Lengthened grade *kēl-. (CONCEAL)
Ah, I see I should have read more closely.
I actually did some research that touches on this.
The ST- assonance (initial consonant cluster) has a long and varied and surprisingly coherent phonosemantic history, dating from a pre-Proto-Indo-European era.
I tripped over ST- while trying to figure out what style meant, in a paper on metaphors, for a literary journal named Style. As usual, there was a lot more stuff going on than I had expected.
The paper is called "Style Stands Still", and I see no reason to reproduce it here, since it's online. (The stuff about ST- starts on page 8, but it's built on the context of the first part; the paper is 20 pages long, with bibliography).
EDIT: By request, a brief excerpt from the paper:
Figure 1. st-initial PIE roots, with some reflexes in Modern English
Source: Watkins (2000), Pokorny (1959)
- *stā- ‘To stand, with derivatives meaning “place or thing that is standing”’ (Pok sta- 1004)
style, stand, steed, stud, stay, stage, stamen, standard, stem, station, stasis, static, status, stable, stoic, store, stylite, steer
- *steigh- ‘To stride, step, rise’ (Pok steigh- 1017)
stile, stirrup, stickle, distich, acrostic
- *steu- ‘To push, stick, knock, beat’ (Pok 2. steu- 1025)
stub, steeple, stoop, stutter, stock, stoke, steep
- *stel- ‘To put, stand; with derivatives referring to a standing object or place’ (Pok 3. stel- 1019)
stolon, stalk, stele, stilt, pedestal, stolid, stall, stout
- *ster- ‘Stiff’ (Pok 5. ster- 1029)
stare, starch, stork, starve, stark, stern, strut, start, stark, startle
- *stebh- ‘Post, stem; to support, place firmly on, fasten’ (Pok steb(h)- 1011)
stoop, staff, staple, stump, stamp, stomp, stave
- *steip- ‘To stick, compress’ (Pok steib(h)- 1015)
stubble, stiff, stipple
- *steg- ‘Pole, stick’ (Pok 2. (s)teg- 1014)
stake, stack, stagger
- *stegh- ‘To stick, prick; pointed’ (Pok stegh- 1014)
stair, stick, sting, stigma, stimulate, stag
There is a strong family resemblance among the roots here. Indeed, on perusing this list, one finds a persistent cognitive image building up, with at least the following four significant perceptual properties:
Figure 2. Cognitive semantic properties of st-initial PIE roots
- One-Dimensional: The image has only one salient major dimension
- Vertical: That dimension is situated in an up-and-down orientation
- Strong: The image displays rigidity, stability, and physical integrity
- Still: The image is either unmoving, or frozen in motion
...
Not all of the characteristics in Figure 2 will be true of every Modern English word that comes from the roots in Figure 1, but some combination of the features applies to them all. For instance, although the Modern English words stamen, stile, steeple, stalk, stork, staff, stake, and stick each come from a different PIE root, all of them refer either to long rigid objects or to things characterized by such, mostly vertically oriented, and often supporting, attached, or applied to other structures by their ends. For that matter, they tend to apply to any Modern English word beginning with st-, no matter where it comes from.
Best Answer
More examples can be found on the list of English homographs over at Wikipedia.
And then there are the capitonyms (august/August, march/March, polish/Polish).