A stye is a bacterial infection of an oil gland in the eyelid.
The word 'hordeolum' comes from hordeum, the Latin word for barley. A stye is said to resemble the barley plant as it grows from the seed. According to Wikipedia, 'stye' is a "back formation" from the Old English stigend, meaning a rising, and 'eye'.
© Haydn Thompson 2019