stage

Pronunciation

• IPA: /steɪdʒ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English stage, borrowed from Old French estage (“dwelling, stay; storey; stage for performance”) with the first vowel lost by aphesis, modern French étage (“storey”),^[2][3][4] from Vulgar Latin *staticum (“a place for standing”),^[2][3][5] from Latin stāre (“to stand”),^[2][6] from Proto-Indo-European *sta- (“to stand”).^[2][5] The etymological notion is “something to stand on”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A storey or floor of a building: about 1250,^[3] or before 1300.^[7]

Semantic evolution

A raised platform for public display is from the early 14th century,^[2] or before 1325 in the Cursor Mundi,^[3] and a platform for speakers or plays from the late 14th century.^[2] The stage as the acting profession is from the 1580s.^[2] A period of development in life is by the early 14th century, probably from the sense of a step on the “ladder” of virtue or the “wheel” of fortune in parables and morality plays.^[2] A single step in a process, and a stage of a journey, are by the late 14th century, hence a roadside stopping place, about 1600, as in stagecoach.^[2] The verb meant “to build” in the 14th century;^[2] “to represent on stage” is from about 1600, “to put on a play” by 1879, and “to mount” an attack or comeback from 1924.^[2] Stage name is from 1727.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – a storey (Cursor Mundi).^[3]
• early 14th century – a raised platform; a period of life.^[2]
• late 14th century – a theatre stage; a step in a process.^[2]
• 1580s – the acting profession.^[2]
• c. 1600 – a stopping place; verb, to put on stage.^[2]
• 1727 – stage name.^[2]
• 1879 – verb, to produce a play.^[2]
• 1924 – verb, to mount an action.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A raised platform, especially one on which plays are performed, and the stage, the theatre as a profession.
2. The scene of an event: the political stage.
3. A level or step in a process; a period of development.
4. A section of a journey; a stagecoach.
5. A section of a rocket with its own engine.

Verb

1. To present on a stage; to produce a play.
2. To arrange and carry out: stage a protest.

Word family

• stageable
• backstage
• downstage
• forestage

Related words

• stand
• state
• station
• static
• stagecoach

Usage notes

An obsolete adjective stage, of a fur, “raw, unseasoned”, is of unknown origin,^[4] and in Lincolnshire dialect stage meant “staid, mature”.^[8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)