Etymologically
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stamina

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 21:00. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈstæmɪnə/[1]
  • US: /ˈstæmənə/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin stāmina (“threads”), the plural of stāmen (“warp of cloth, thread”),[2][3][4][5][6] the source of stamen.[7][3] Ayto traces the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *stāmen-, a derivative of *stā- (“to stand”), the source also of stand,[7] and Etymonline relates it to stō (“to stand”).[3] In English the word was at first, like its Latin source, a plural.[8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The congenital vital capacities of a person or animal, on which the length of life was thought to depend: 1542, in J. Leland's Naeniae, according to the OED.[2] Most other dictionaries date the word from the 1670s, when it meant the original elements or rudiments of something,[3][4][9][10] first recorded before 1676 in M. Hale's Primitive Origination of Mankind.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The OED explains the English senses partly as a metaphor from the Latin sense "warp of cloth" and partly from the classical use of the plural for the threads spun by the Fates, the two notions sometimes blending.[2][6][10] The warp is the lengthwise set of threads on which a fabric is woven, so stamina could be the essential elements of a thing, its foundation; and like the Fates' threads, which fixed the length of a life, it could be the innate capacities that were believed to decide how long a person would live.[8][4][11] From this second use grew the modern sense "staying power, endurance", recorded from 1726 in Swift,[2][4][3][8] at first still construed as a plural and now as a singular.[2][8][10] The older senses died out in the early 19th century.[2][10] From 1803 the word was also used of intellectual or moral vigour and perseverance, and of the robustness of things and institutions.[2] Johnson (1755) still defined it as "the first principles of any thing" and "the solids of a human body", and also used it in botany for the stamens of a flower.[12] Collins treats the botanical plural as a separate word stamina.[13]

Timeline

  • 1542 – the innate vital capacities supposed to decide the length of life (obsolete by 1823).[2]
  • before 1676 – the original or essential elements of something (obsolete by 1801).[2][4]
  • 1726 – vigour of body, power to endure fatigue or hardship, in Swift.[2][4][3]
  • 1755 – Johnson defines it as the first principles of anything.[12]
  • 1779 – a main support, a backbone (obsolete by 1799).[2]
  • 1803 – intellectual or moral robustness, perseverance.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The ability to keep up a physical or mental effort for a long time; endurance, staying power: Long-distance cycling demands a great deal of stamina.[13][14][2]
  2. Moral or intellectual perseverance; capacity to hold out, also of things and institutions.[2][10]
  3. (obsolete, 1676–1801) The essential or fundamental elements of something, especially of an organism.[2][10][14]
  4. (obsolete, 1542–1823) The innate capacities once believed to govern the length of life.[2][10][14]
  5. (botany) A plural of stamen.[13][12]

References

  1. ^ a b 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster