"Stamp" vs "stomp": when, how, and why?

Question

In an article discussing those two, James Kilpatrick, the author, makes the following claim:

Semantically speaking, there is not a dime's worth of difference in the two verbs. They both mean "to bring down the foot on an object or a surface forcibly, to tread heavily or violently upon." The subtle difference, I submit, lies in the image we are trying to convey. Ladies stamp, horses stomp.

Is that true? Is stamping gentler (or more genteel, perhaps) than stomping?

I remember an editor changing all three instances of a female character in my story stamping her foot in anger to stomping her foot in anger.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

They are just synonyms according to the following sources:

• Stomp originated in American English as a dialectal variant of stamp and was first recorded in the early 19th century.

• The passing years have seen it gain steadily in respectability, and its status in current American English—and British English, as well—is that of a standard synonym of stamp in its senses having to do, literally and figuratively, with bringing the foot down heavily.

(M-W)

Stomp:

• The Columbia Guide to Standard American English says "stomp" began as a dialectal variation of "stamp," but that it is now standard and preferred for the meaning "to trample or destroy by trampling." The American Heritage Book of English Usage says we can use "stamp" or "stomp" interchangeably for the meaning "to trample" or "to tread on violently."

(grammarguide.copydesk.org)

Usage examples from OLD:

• She stomped angrily out of the office.

• The children were stomping around noisily.

• I could hear my mother stomping around in the other room.

• She stomped angrily up the stairs.

The usage of "stomp" is often, but not necessarily, related to anger:

To Stomp:

(always followed by an adverb or preposition, [no object] :) to walk or move with very heavy or noisy steps:

• He stomped angrily out of the room.

• She stomped [=stamped] around the yard in her muddy boots.

[+ object] chiefly US : to put (your foot) down forcefully and noisily

• He angrily stomped [=stamped] his foot.

• The fans were stomping their feet and shouting.

(M-W)

Answer 2

In Britain, the two words stomp and stamp are used rather differently.

A stamp is a stamp, irrespective of whether it is done angrily or in excitement. I stamp on a twig to break it, or to flatten a piece of earth when gardening. Those do not involve anger, excitement, or a response to musical rythm.

But to stomp out of the room (in anger), or stomp to the music, or allow the children to stomp all over the house (when playing/enjoying themselves) is something different.

Personally, (and I am British), I would never stomp my feet merely to get the mud off my boots after working in the garden. That would always involve stamping. And a horse would never stomp unless it was a pantomime horse on stage, dancing to music. Horses stamp. And my sense is that stomp is used much less in Britain than in America. Most people in the UK stamp their feet in anger.

I find it difficult to conceive of a single stomp. If there was only one of them, for me it would always be a stamp. But to stomp means there must be multiple stamps.

The first recorded reference to stomp that the OED has is from 1845, and it is in a poem by Robert Browning, in order to obtain a rhyme:

1845 R. Browning Englishman in Italy 272

And then will the flaxen-wigged Image Be carried in pomp
Thro' the plain, while in gallant procession The priests mean to stomp.

Answer 3

I am British, in my 60s and I don’t remember ever hearing the word stomp in my youth. What brought me to look up its usage was repeatedly coming across the phrases ‘old stomping ground’ and ‘chomping at the bit’ in the media, including the BBC. I am sure it used to be ‘stamping ground’ and ‘champing at the bit’.