steak

From Middle English steike, borrowed from Old Norse steik, meaning roast or meat roasted on a stick. The verb form comes either from this noun or from the related Old Norse verb steikja, 'to roast.'

The word once specifically meant meat cooked on a stick over fire; today it simply names a cut of meat, with the cooking method no longer implied.

The facts note that its vowel shift from Early Modern English /ɛː/ to /eɪ/ was irregular, unlike similar words such as speak and wreak, which kept the expected sound change.