Stair

//stɛɚ// name, noun

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
Noun
  1. 1
    A single step in a staircase.
  2. 2
    support consisting of a place to rest the foot while ascending or descending a stairway wordnet
  3. 3
    A series of steps; a staircase.

    "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 …"

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

From stair, a topographic surname for someone who lived by a ladder or steps.

Next best steps

Mini challenge

Unscramble this word: stair