The compound "stone-walled" is a relatively modern English formation that transparently combines two ancient, concrete nouns. "Stone" derives from the Proto-Germanic stainaz, a term of solid permanence, while "wall" originates from Latin vallum (a palisade or rampart), which entered Proto-Germanic as wallaz. The literal adjectival sense, "having walls made of stone," follows a straightforward Germanic compounding pattern, using the -ed suffix to mean "characterized by." The figurative verbal sense, meaning to obstruct or be uncooperative, is a 20th-century development. It metaphorically extends the image of a formidable, impenetrable stone barrier to describe a person's defensive or evasive behavior, creating a vivid link between physical fortification and psychological intransigence.

Structure: stone (substance) + wall (structure) + ed (adjective/verb suffix) - stone: From Old English stān, meaning "rock, stone." In this compound, it functions as a noun used attributively to specify the material. - wall: From Old English weall, meaning "rampart, dike, or stone structure." In this compound, it functions as the core noun. - ed: A suffix from Old English -ed, -od, -ad, used to form adjectives from nouns (meaning "having or provided with") and to form the past tense and past participle of verbs.