stair

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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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From Middle English steire, staire, stayre, stayer, steir, steyre, steyer, from Old English stǣġer (stair, staircase), 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)

  1. A single step in a staircase.
    Synonym: step
  2. 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 …

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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Etymology

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From Old Irish stoir, from Latin historia, from Ancient Greek ἱστορίᾱ (historíā). 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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Derived terms

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Further reading

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