different between staple vs stable

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /?ste?.p?l/
• Rhymes: -e?p?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English staple, from Anglo-Norman estaple, Old French estaple (“market, (trading) post”), from Late Latin stapula, from Middle Dutch stapel (“pillar; foundation; market”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *stapulaz (“post”), from Proto-Indo-European *steb?- (“post, stem”). Compare staff.

Noun

staple (countable and uncountable, plural staples)

1. (now historical) A town containing merchants who have exclusive right, under royal authority, to purchase or produce certain goods for export; also, the body of such merchants seen as a group.
   • 1727, John Arbuthnot, Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights and Measures. Explain'd and exemplify'd in several dissertations

     The customs of Alexandria were very great, it having been the staple of the Indian trade.

   • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 73:

     Calais was one of the ‘principal treasures’ of the crown, of both strategic and economic importance. It was home to the staple, the crown-controlled marketplace for England's lucrative textile trade, whose substantial customs and tax revenues flooded into Henry's coffers.

2. (by extension) Place of supply; source.
3. The principal commodity produced in a town or region.
4. A basic or essential supply.

5. A recurring topic or character.
   • 2010, The Economist, Jul-Aug 2010, p. 27:

     In most countries, rubbish makes headlines only when it is not collected, and stinking sacks lie heaped on the streets. In Britain bins are a front-page staple.

6. Short fiber, as of cotton, sheep’s wool, or the like, which can be spun into yarn or thread.

   Tow is flax with short staple.

7. Unmanufactured material; raw material.

Translations

Verb

staple (third-person singular simple present staples, present participle stapling, simple past and past participle stapled)

1. (transitive) To sort according to its staple.

Adjective

staple (not comparable)

1. Relating to, or being market of staple for, commodities.

2. Established in commerce; occupying the markets; settled.

   • To ruin with worse ware our staple trade

3. Fit to be sold; marketable.

   • What needy writer would not solicit to work under such masters, who will pay us beforehand, take off as much of our ware as we please, at our own rates, and trouble not themselves to examine, either before or after they have bought it, whether it be staple, or not.

4. Regularly produced or manufactured in large quantities; belonging to wholesale traffic; principal; chief.
   • 1818, Henry Hallam, View of the state of Europe during the Middle ages

     wool, the great staple commodity of England

   • 1929, M. Barnard Eldershaw, A House Is Built, Chapter VIII, Section ii:

     The pastoral industry, which had weathered the severe depression of the early forties by recourse to boiling down the sheep for their tallow, and was now firmly re-established as the staple industry of the colony, was threatened once more with eclipse.

Etymology 2

From Middle English stapel (“staple, pillar, post”), from Old English stapol (“post, pillar”), from Proto-Germanic *stapulaz, from Proto-Indo-European *steb?- (“post, stem”). See also Old English steppan (“to step”) and Old French estaple (“post”). Consider also stapes (“stirrup”), from Latin. Doublet of staple (etymology 1).

Noun

staple (plural staples)

1. A wire fastener used to secure stacks of paper by penetrating all the sheets and curling around.
2. A wire fastener used to secure something else by penetrating and curling.

   Can you believe they use staples to hold cars together these days?

3. A U-shaped metal fastener, used to attach fence wire or other material to posts or structures.

   The rancher used staples to attach the barbed wire to the fence-posts.
4. One of a set of U-shaped metal rods hammered into a structure, such as a piling or wharf, which serve as a ladder.

   Fortunately, there were staples in the quay wall, and she was able to climb out of the water.

5. (mining) A shaft, smaller and shorter than the principal one, joining different levels.
6. A small pit.
7. A district granted to an abbey.

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

8. (obsolete) A post; prop; support

Translations

Verb

staple (third-person singular simple present staples, present participle stapling, simple past and past participle stapled)

1. (transitive) To secure with a staple.

Derived terms

• stapler

Translations

See also

• Staple Hill

Anagrams

• Patels, leptas, palest, palets, pastel, peltas, petals, plates, pleats, septal, tepals

German

Verb

staple

1. inflection of stapeln:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative
   3. first/third-person singular subjunctive I

Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman staple (Old French estaple), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *stapulaz (“post, pillar; basis, foundation”). Doublet of stapel (“post, stake”).

Noun

staple (plural staples)

1. staple (official market established by royal authority for selling export goods)
2. staple (the town containing such market)

Alternative forms

• stapel, stapil, stapul

Descendants

• English: staple
• Scots: stapill, staple, steple

References

• “st?ple, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Noun

staple (plural staples)

1. Alternative form of stapel

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ste?.b??/
• Rhymes: -e?b?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English stable, borrowed from Anglo-Norman stable and Old French estable, from Latin stabulum (“stall, stand”).

Noun

stable (plural stables)

1. A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) animals with hoofs, especially horses.
2. (metonymically) All the racehorses of a particular stable, i.e. belonging to a given owner.
3. (Scotland) A set of advocates; a barristers' chambers.
4. (sumo) An organization of sumo wrestlers who live and train together.

   Synonym: heya

5. A group of prostitutes managed by one pimp.

   Synonym: string

   • 2013, Noble Dee, Pimp: Reflection of My Life (page 167)

     My pimp vision enabled me to see that no hoe in my stable would be more worthy of the game than my young turnout red-bones.

Derived terms

• stablemate

Translations

Verb

stable (third-person singular simple present stables, present participle stabling, simple past and past participle stabled)

1. (transitive) to put or keep (an animal) in a stable.
   • 1954, C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy, Collins, 1998, Chapter 7,

     "I hope your have been quite comfortable." ¶ "Never better stabled in my life," said Bree.

2. (intransitive) to dwell in a stable.
3. (rail transport, transitive) to park (a rail vehicle).

Derived terms

• (rail transport): outstable

Related terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English stable, from Anglo-Norman stable, stabel, from Latin stabilis (“firm, steadfast”) (itself from stare (“stand”) + -abilis (“able”)).

Adjective

stable (comparative stabler or more stable, superlative stablest or most stable)

1. Relatively unchanging, steady, permanent; firmly fixed or established; consistent; not easily moved, altered, or destroyed.
   • a. 1729, John Rogers, The Greatness of the Gospel Salvation

     In this region of chance, […] where nothing ws stable.

2. (computing) Of software: established to be relatively free of bugs, as opposed to a beta version.

3. (computer science, of a sorting algorithm) That maintains the relative order of items that compare as equal.

Synonyms

• (relatively unchanging): fixed, unvarying; see also Thesaurus:steady

Antonyms

• instable
• mobile
• unstable
• varying

Derived terms

• bistable
• instable
• tristable
• unistable
• unstable

Translations

Anagrams

• Bestla, ablest, ablets, bastle, belast, blates, bleats, tables

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin stabilis. Replaced Middle French, Old French estable, an earlier borrowing from the same Latin source.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stabl/

Adjective

stable (plural stables)

1. stable (relatively unchanging)

Antonyms

• instable

Related terms

• stabiliser
• stabilité

Further reading

• “stable” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• baltes, tables

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Anglo-Norman stable, from Vulgar Latin *stabula, probably a collective plural of Latin stabulum (“dwelling; stable”).

Noun

stable (plural stables or stablen)

1. stable (building for horses)

Alternative forms

• stabel, stabele, stabil, stabille, stabul, stabulle

Descendants

• English: stable
• Scots: stable
• ? Middle Irish: stábla
  • Irish: stábla
  • Scottish Gaelic: stàball

References

• “st?ble, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

From Anglo-Norman stable, stabel, from Latin stabilis (“firm, steadfast”).

Adjective

stable (comparative stabler or stablere or stablour)

1. stable (relatively unchanging)

Alternative forms

• stabel, stabele, stabil, stabul

Descendants

• English: stable
• Scots: stable

References

• “st?ble, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 3

Noun

stable (plural stables)

1. Alternative form of stablie

Etymology 4

Noun

stable (plural stables)

1. Alternative form of stapel

Etymology 5

Verb

stable (third-person singular simple present stableth, present participle stablynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle stabled)

1. Alternative form of stablen (“to establish”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From the noun stabel

Verb

stable (imperative stabl or stable, present tense stabler, passive stables, simple past and past participle stabla or stablet, present participle stablende)

1. to stack, pile

References

• “stable” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “stable” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From the noun stabel

Verb

stable (present tense stablar, past tense stabla, past participle stabla, passive infinitive stablast, present participle stablande, imperative stabl)

1. to stack, pile

Alternative forms

• stabla

References

• “stable” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.