different between mainstay vs splint

English

Etymology

From Middle English main stai, equivalent to main +? stay (“rope”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?me?n.ste?/

Noun

mainstay (plural mainstays)

1. A chief support.
2. Someone or something that can be depended on to make a regular contribution.
3. (nautical) A stabilising rope from the top of the mainmast to the bottom of the foremast.

Translations

Anagrams

• Mayanist

English

Etymology

From Middle English splint, splent, splente, from Middle Low German splinte, splente or Middle Dutch splint, splinte. Cognate with Old High German splinza (“bar, bolt, latch”). All ultimately from Proto-Germanic *splint?, *splint? (“piece of wood, splinter”), from Proto-Germanic *splint-, *splind- (“to split”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pley- (“to split, splice”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spl?nt/

Noun

splint (plural splints)

1. A narrow strip of wood split or peeled from a larger piece.
2. (dentistry) A dental device applied consequent to undergoing orthodontia.
3. (medicine) A device to immobilize a body part.
4. (military, historical) A segment of armour consisting of a narrow overlapping plate.
5. (mining) Synonym of splent coal
6. (zootomy) A bone found on either side of a horse's cannon bone; the second or fourth metacarpal (forelimb) or metatarsal (hindlimb) bone.
7. (zootomy, veterinary medicine) A disease affecting the splint bones, as a callosity or hard excrescence.

Usage notes

• For a horse to pop a splint is for it to receive an injury to the splint bone or surrounding area.

Derived terms

• shin splint
• splinter

Translations

Verb

splint (third-person singular simple present splints, present participle splinting, simple past and past participle splinted)

1. (transitive) To apply a splint to; to fasten with splints.
2. To support one's abdomen with hands or a pillow before attempting to cough.
3. (obsolete, rare, transitive) To split into thin, slender pieces; to splinter.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Florio to this entry?)

Translations