Throughout history, the word store has had various spellings. Early forms included stoore, stor, stoer, istor, and story. Even as late as the turn of the seventeenth century, some people were spelling it as stoar. The first recorded use in English dates back to a 1264 collection of political songs, where it was used as a verb (the noun form came around three decades later). The word was borrowed from the Anglo-Normans after their invasion and can be traced back to Old French estorer, which meant “to construct”. Estorer comes from the Latin verb instaurare, meaning “establish” or “renew”. This is made up of the prefix in- (“in”, from Proto-Indo-European en), and the root staurare, derived from PIE steh, meaning “to stand up”. In related news, I now have a store where I’m selling infographic prints! Be sure to check it out!
