Etymologically
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staircase

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Pronunciation

  • US: /ˈstɛɹˌkeɪs/[1]

Etymology

It is a compound of stair and case,[2][3][4][5][6] the latter in its sense "frame, enclosure", as in the older compounds for the frames of windows and doors.[7] The word stair goes back to Old English stæger (“stair, flight of steps”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The part of a building that encloses a flight of stairs: 1624, in Henry Wotton's Elements of Architecture.[2][5][7] Johnson (1755) quoted Wotton: "To make a complete staircase is a curious piece of architecture."[6]

Semantic evolution

The OED quotes Moxon (1679) for the original sense, "the inclosure of a pair of Stairs, whether it be with Walls, or with Walls and Railes and Bannisters"; the word now usually means the flight of stairs itself with its supporting structure.[2][3] Transferred uses are recorded from 1670 and figurative ones from 1641.[2] In the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge a staircase is also the part of a building containing a stair and the rooms opening off it, and the people living in them.[3] Several technical senses followed: a sea shell likened to a spiral staircase (1713–1815), a series of nerve responses rising in intensity in physiology (1883), and in electronics a voltage that changes in equal steps (1956).[2][3] A staircase lock is a series of adjoining canal locks, from the mid-20th century.[3] The phrase spirit of the staircase renders French esprit de l'escalier, the clever reply thought of too late, from about 1906.[2][3] A rare verb, to provide with staircases, dates from the early 18th century,[3] and in 1988 the verb was used of a tenant who buys a freehold step by step under a shared-ownership scheme.[2][3]

Timeline

  • 1624 – the enclosure of a flight of stairs.[2][5]
  • 1641 – figurative use.[2]
  • 1670 – transferred use.[2]
  • 1713 – a staircase shell (obsolete by 1815).[2]
  • 1883 – physiology, a rising series of nerve responses.[2]
  • c. 1906 – spirit of the staircase.[2]
  • 1956 – electronics, a voltage changing in equal steps.[2]
  • 1988 – verb, to buy a freehold in stages.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A flight of stairs with its supporting framework, banisters and handrail: A narrow staircase led up to the attic.[8][5][3]
  2. The structure or enclosure that contains a flight of stairs.[5][2]
  3. In Oxford and Cambridge colleges, the part of a building containing a stair and the rooms reached from it.[3]
  4. (electronics) A voltage that rises or falls in equal steps to a maximum or minimum.[2][3]

Verb

  1. Of a tenant, to buy a freehold in stages under a shared-ownership scheme.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins