stead
pronunciation
How to pronounce stead in British English:
UK [sted]
How to pronounce stead in American English:
US [stɛd]
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- Noun:
- the function or position properly or customarily occupied or served by another
Word Origin
- stead
- stead: [OE] Stead ‘place’ comes from a prehistoric Germanic *stadiz, which also produced German statt ‘place’ and stadt ‘town’. This in turn went back to Indo-European *stətís, a derivative of the base *stə -, *stā- ‘stand’, which also produced English stand and Latin stāre ‘stand’ (source of English state, statue, etc). The expression in the stead of ‘in place of’, and its lexicalized form instead, originated in the 13th century, modelled on Old French en lieu de.=> stand, state, statue, steady
- stead (n.)
- Old English stede "place, position; standing, firmness, stability, fixity," from Proto-Germanic *stadiz (cognates: Old Saxon stedi, Old Norse staðr "place, spot; stop, pause; town," Swedish stad, Dutch stede "place," Old High German stat, German Stadt "town," Gothic staþs "place"), from PIE *steti-, suffixed form of root *sta- "to stand" (see stet). Related to stand. Now chiefly in compounds or phrases. Meaning "assistance, use, benefit, advantage" is from c. 1300. Meaning "frame on which a bed is laid" is from c. 1400. The German use of Stadt for "town, city" "is a late development from c. 1200 when the term began to replace Burg" [Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names]. The Steads was 16c. English for "the Hanseatic cities."
Example
- 1. Few germans are likely to do battle in his stead .
- 2. Without a trial he breaks the mighty , and sets others in their stead .
- 3. These verbs are compared as they mean to turn someone or something out and place another in his , her , or its stead .
- 4. You 'll trust us to act in your stead ?
- 5. Price stead on the commodity market .