mainstay

Etymology

It is formed from English main (“chief, principal”) + stay (“a strong rope supporting a mast”),^[2][3][4][5] and began as a sailors' word.^[2][3] Merriam-Webster gives the Middle English form as mayne stay.^[4][6] The rope sense of the second element goes back to Old English stæg (“rope used to support a mast”), from Proto-Germanic *stagaz, which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *stak- (“to stand, place”).^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In nautical use, the stay running from the maintop to the foot of the foremast: 1485, in naval accounts of the reign of Henry VII.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the late 15th century,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1475–85.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The rope that steadies the mainmast gave the figurative sense of a chief support, something or someone on which one mainly relies.^[2][3][8] Etymonline and the 1989 edition of the OED first record this use in 1787,^[3][9] but the OED, revising the entry in 2000, found it in Marston and Webster's The Malcontent of 1604.^[2] Mapping Metaphor counts it among the words that describe reliance and importance in terms of navigation.^[10] The figurative sense is now the usual one, and dictionaries list it first.^[8][1]

Timeline

• 1485 – the stay from the maintop to the foot of the foremast.^[2][9]
• 1604 – a chief support; something or someone mainly relied on.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1787.^[3]
• 1742 – mainstaysail, a storm sail set on the mainstay.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A chief support; the person or thing on which something mainly depends: Fishing was long the mainstay of the island's economy.^[4][8][11]
2. (nautical) The stay running forward from the maintop to the foot of the foremast, which steadies the mainmast.^[4][2][8]

Related words

• mainsail
• mainmast
• mainland
• might

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
11. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap