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stairway

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Etymology and origin of the English word stairway

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
1767 Thomas Hutchinson, History of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *staigriz
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English stair
English stairway
From the same root
English downstairs ← stair

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈstɛəweɪ/[1]
  • US: /ˈstɛɹweɪ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English stair + way.[2][3][4] Stair is Middle English steir, from Old English stæger (“stair, staircase, flight of steps”),[3] from Proto-Germanic *staigriz,[3] a noun from the root of Proto-Indo-European *steigʰ- (“to go, rise, stride”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A way up a flight of stairs, a staircase: 1767, in Thomas Hutchinson's history of the province of Massachusetts Bay.[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster give the same year,[3][5] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1790–1800.[4]

Semantic evolution

The word joined the older staircase and the plural stairs for a set of steps with its landings.[2][5] By about 1820 it was also used of a landscape: in geomorphology a stairway is a series of abrupt changes of level in the floor of a glaciated valley.[2] Figurative use is recorded from 1879, in Edwin Arnold's The Light of Asia.[2]

Timeline

  • 1767 – a staircase, a way up a flight of stairs.[2][3][5]
  • c. 1820 – geomorphology, a series of steps in the floor of a glaciated valley.[2]
  • 1879 – figurative use.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. One or more flights of stairs, usually with landings, leading from one level of a building to another; a staircase: A narrow stairway led up to the attic.[5][6][7]
  2. (geomorphology) A series of abrupt drops in level in the floor of a glaciated valley.[2]
  3. Figuratively, a way of rising step by step.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Related etymologies

  • anon · also from Old English
  • worldly · also from Old English
  • glide · also from Old English
  • afloat · also from Old English
  • molten · also from Old English
  • mane · also from Old English
  • dole · also from Old English
  • pebble · also from Old English
Cite this entry

“Stairway.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/stairway. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·