Talk:stale

Can word expired be used instead of stale? Paweł ze Szczecina 18:17, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

More stale and not staler? The Official Scrabble Dictionary (4th ed.) allows both staler and stalest.

Missing sense: handle

See e.g. rakestale. Equinox ◑ 13:33, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

• rake's tail ?? SemperBlotto (talk) 13:34, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

That is a later folk ety. Equinox ◑ 14:15, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

RFV discussion: March–July 2015

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stale

Etymology 5 (which was Etymology 1 until recently!), which is supposedly modern English, only has two citations - one from 1240 and one from 1340. Did this word (an early form of steal/stealth) survive into modern English, or was it already dead by 1500? Smurrayinchester (talk) 13:54, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

RFV-failed. (Moved to Middle English.) - -sche (discuss) 21:13, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

RFV discussion: February–April 2022

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stale

• (alcoholic beverages, obsolete) Clear, free of dregs and lees; old and strong.
  • c. 1300, K. Horn (Laud), 383:

    Bi forn þe king abenche Red win to schenche And after mete stale Boþe win and ale.

  • c. 1386, Geoffrey Chaucer, Sir Thopas, 52:

    Notemuge to putte in ale, Whether it be moyste or stale

• (military, obsolete) A fixed position, particularly a soldier's in a battle-line.
  • c. 1450, in C. L. Kingsford, Chrons. London (1905), 123:

    And at pavelen...þe Erle of Dorzet helde is stale, and þer he toke prisoners.

  • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, V xi 179

    And syr Florence with his C knyghtes alwey kepte the stale and foughte manly.

Removed / moved to Middle English by Astova.

• (dialectal) The posts and rungs composing a ladder.

Tagged by Astova, not listed. J3133 (talk) 21:06, 19 February 2022 (UTC)

"Clear alcohol" should be findable by searching for old texts with "stale ale" and "stale beer". The military sense is likely ME only. The ladder sense may be citeable; the "rungs" part seems to have survived in dialect, although EDD doesn't include any cites. This, that and the other (talk) 09:53, 20 February 2022 (UTC)

cited Kiwima (talk) 02:10, 17 April 2022 (UTC) RFV-passed Kiwima (talk) 04:28, 24 April 2022 (UTC)