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stair

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Stair

English

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 stair on Wikipedia
Stair in Opéra Garnier (Paris)
Stair of a building in Bucharest (Romania)

Etymology

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Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *steygʰ-
Proto-Indo-European *-eti
Proto-Indo-European *stéygʰeti
Proto-Germanic *stīganą
Proto-Indo-European *-yeti
Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti
Proto-Germanic *-janą
Proto-Germanic *staigijaną
Proto-Indo-European *-rós
Proto-Germanic *-raz
Proto-Germanic *staigraz
Proto-Germanic *staigriz
Proto-West Germanic *staigri
Old English stǣġer
Middle English steire
English stair

    From Middle English steire, staire, stayre, stayer, steir, steyre, steyer, from Old English stǣġer (“stair, staircase”), from Proto-West Germanic *staigri, from Proto-Germanic *staigriz (“stairs, scaffolding”), from Proto-Indo-European *steygʰ- (“to walk, proceed, march, climb”).

    Cognate with Dutch steiger (“a stair, step, wharf, pier, scaffolding”), Middle Low German steiger, steir (“scaffolding”), German Low German Steiger (“a scaffold; trestle”). Related to Old English āstǣġan (“to ascend, go up, embark”), Old English stīġan (“to go, move, reach; ascend, mount, go up, spring up, rise; scale”), German Stiege (“a flight of stairs”). More at sty.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    stair (plural stairs)

    2. A single step in a staircase.
      Synonym: step
    4. A series of steps; a staircase.
      • 1899, Hughes Mearns, Antigonish:
        Yesterday, upon the stair / I met a man who wasn’t there / He wasn’t there again today / I wish, I wish he’d go away …
      • 2021 July 2, Eliott C. McLaughlin, Alta Spells, Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman, “Firm held off on repairs because of stability issues in months before Surfside building collapse”, in CNN‎[1], archived from the original on 22 November 2021:
        Among other work done, according to the letter: CPR replaced the bottom of a deteriorating stair column base with hollow steel structural sections; conducted exploratory demolition on the underside of an eave that required “removal and reconstruction”; and removed all loose “cracked, spalled, deteriorated, and delaminated concrete” and damaged stucco from the underside of balcony eaves on 114 of the building’s 136 units, the letter said.

    Usage notes

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    • Stairs and stair are used to refer to a single staircase, mostly interchangeably in the UK.

    Synonyms

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    Derived terms

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    Terms derived from stair (noun)

    Translations

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    See also

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    Anagrams

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    Irish

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    Alternative forms

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    Etymology

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    From Old Irish stoir, from Latin historia, from Ancient Greek ἱστορίᾱ (historíā).[2] Doublet of stór.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    stair f (genitive singular staire, nominative plural startha)

    1. history
    2. account, story
    3. (literary) repute, fame

    Declension

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    Declension of stair (second declension)
    bare forms
    singular plural
    nominative stair startha
    vocative a stair a startha
    genitive staire startha
    dative stair startha
    forms with the definite article
    singular plural
    nominative an stair na startha
    genitive na staire na startha
    dative leis an stair
    don stair     		leis na startha

    Derived terms

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    References

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    1. ^ “stair”, in Historical Irish Corpus, 1600–1926, Royal Irish Academy
    2. ^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “stair”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
    3. ^ “stair”, in Irish Pronunciation Database, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2026
    4. ^ Quiggin, E. C. (1906), A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, § 75, page 32

    Further reading

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