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staple

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English has two main words spelled staple, which come from one prehistoric Germanic word meaning "pillar".[1][2]

Pronunciation

  • /ˈsteɪ.pəl/[3]

staple1 U-shaped fastener

Etymology

The fastener is inherited from Middle English stapel (“post, staple”),[4][5] inherited from Old English stapol (“post, pillar, column”),[6][7][2][8] from Proto-Germanic *stapulaz (“pillar”).[2][7][9][10] Its cognates include Old Frisian stapul (“stem of a tooth; block for executions”), Old Saxon stapal (“candle, small tub”), Middle Low German stapel (“pillar, post, platform, heap”), Middle Dutch stapel (“foundation, support, heap”), Old High German staffal (“foundation”) and Old Norse stǫpull (“steeple, tower”).[6][7][11][9] The OED traces the senses in the Germanic languages to a general meaning "something supporting", and takes the root to be probably the same as that of step.[6][5][11] Barnhart derives it from Proto-Indo-European *steb- (“post”),[7] and Orel relates it to Proto-Germanic *stapōną (“to step”) or to a variant of Proto-Indo-European *stebh-;[9] Etymonline notes that Boutkan finds that root a mixture of unrelated material and suspects a northern European substratum word.[2] How the sense "U-shaped bar" developed from "pillar" is obscure,[1] and the OED suggests the later English sense might even be a separate word.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A post or pillar: Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 725, in Beowulf,[7] and the OED's first record of the sense is in the Lindisfarne Gospels.[6] Bosworth–Toller records it as a post, pillar or column, including stone posts named in the bounds of charters.[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense "post, pillar" lasted until about 1400;[6][4] Barnhart still finds "post, stake" in 1289.[7] From 1295 a staple was a short metal bar bent into a U, with pointed ends, driven into wood to hold a hook, bolt or hasp,[6][7][4] and in Middle English also a clasp for armour (a1420 to 1600).[6][4] The verb, to fasten with a staple, followed in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (about 1390);[7][6] the participle stapled, built with pillars, is recorded earlier, only in Middle English.[12][2] Later technical uses include a snout ring (1688), a pillar of coal left to support the roof of a mine (1839) and the metal tube carrying the reed of a wind instrument (1880).[6] The modern wire staple driven through papers and clinched to hold them is recorded from 1895,[6][7][2] the verb in this sense by 1898,[2] and the stapler from 1926.[7] In place names the Old English word survives as Staple-, as in Stapleton and Stapleford.[13][4]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – Old English stapol, post, pillar, according to Barnhart.[7]
  • 1289 – post, stake.[7]
  • 1295 – U-shaped metal bar with pointed ends.[6][7]
  • c. 1390 – verb, to fasten (a helmet), in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.[6][7]
  • a1420 – clasp for armour (obsolete by 1600).[6]
  • 1488 – verb, to secure with a staple.[6]
  • 1839 – mining, a pillar of coal left as a support.[6]
  • 1895 – wire staple for binding papers.[6][7][2]
  • 1898 – verb, to fasten with a wire staple.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A short piece of thin wire bent into a U, driven through papers or cloth and bent flat to hold them together.[14][6][5]
  2. A U-shaped metal loop with pointed ends, driven into wood or a wall to hold a hasp, bolt or cable.[14][5][6]
  3. (obsolete) A post or pillar.[6][4]

Verb

  1. To fasten or secure with staples: She stapled the receipts to the form.[14][5][6]

Word family

  • stapler
  • unstaple

staple2 principal commodity; official market

Etymology

The market and commodity word is inherited from Middle English staple, also stapull,[5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman estaple, also Old French estaple (“counter, stall; market, depot”),[2][7][6][12] modern étape (“halting-place”).[6][10][13] The French word is of Germanic origin: the OED derives it through Medieval Latin stapula from Middle Low German stapel,[6] while Merriam-Webster, Collins and the AHD (with a "perhaps") point to Middle Dutch stapel (“heap, emporium, warehouse”).[5][14][15] That Low German and Dutch word is the same as the source of staple1, ultimately Proto-Germanic *stapulaz (“pillar”).[1][2][7] The OED notes that it is uncertain whether the sense "market" arose in Low German or in Old French, and how it relates to the other senses of the Germanic word.[6] The fibre sense of staple has a separate source: the OED thinks it perhaps a back-formation from the verb staple, to sort goods at a staple, or from stapler, a merchant of the staple, since sorting wool by quality was part of a stapler's business.[6][10][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

An official market where merchants had the exclusive right to buy certain goods for export: before 1400 in Barnhart, mid-14th century in Etymonline,[7][2] and 1423 in the OED, in the Rolls of Parliament.[6] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1338 in this sense.[16]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline and Ayto suggest that the Dutch and Low German word passed from "pillar" to "market" through the stalls standing behind the pillars of an arcade;[2][1] the OED, noting that the king's stapulus in the Frankish laws was the place where the king or his deputy gave judgement, suggests a raised platform instead.[6] In England the staple was a town appointed by royal authority, where merchants had the exclusive right to buy wool, hides and other goods for export (1423).[6][5] From this came the sense of a principal market or trading centre (1436), and figurative uses (1594).[6] The goods sold there were staple ware (1432) or staple gude (1455, in Scotland), and staple alone has meant the principal product of a country or place since 1616.[7][6][2] Trench observed that the older usage would have called Manchester the staple, or mart, of cotton, where modern usage calls cotton the staple of Manchester.[17] The adjective, first "foremost among a country's exports" (1615), widened to "chief, principal, standard" (1715 in Barnhart);[6][7] Johnson (1755) defines it as "settled; established in commerce".[18] From 1826 the noun was also used for the main element or ingredient of anything, or the main subject of talk.[6][2] Separately, from 1481 staple meant the fibre of wool, later of cotton or flax, judged by its length and fineness;[6][2][12] in Cumberland, Yorkshire and Lancashire dialect, spelled stapple and staap'l, it was the length of a lock of wool from the skin to the tip.[19]

Timeline

  • 1338 – Anglo-Norman estaple, official market.[16]
  • before 1400 – official market for export goods.[7]
  • 1423 – town appointed by royal authority with a monopoly of buying export goods.[6]
  • 1432 – staple ware, goods from the staple.[7]
  • 1472 – verb, to receive goods at a staple.[6]
  • 1481 – the fibre of wool, judged by length and fineness.[6]
  • 1523 – a storehouse for provisions or war material (obsolete by 1688).[6]
  • 1615 – adjective, foremost among exported products.[6][7]
  • 1616 – principal product of a country or district.[6][7]
  • 1715 – adjective, chief, principal.[7]
  • 1826 – the main element or subject of anything.[6][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A basic food or other item that is used or needed regularly: Rice is a staple across much of Asia.[5][6]
  2. The main commodity produced or traded in a region.[5][6][10]
  3. A main element or recurring feature of something: Ghost stories were a staple of his radio show.[6][5]
  4. The fibre of wool, cotton or flax, considered with regard to its length and fineness.[6][5][12]
  5. (historical) A town appointed by royal authority as the centre for buying and exporting certain goods, such as wool.[5][6][12]

Adjective

  1. Used, needed or produced regularly and in large amounts; chief or standard: staple crops such as maize and beans.[5][6][18]

Verb

  1. To sort or grade fibre by the length of its staple.[5]

Word family

  • nonstaple

References

  1. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  9. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  16. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  17. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ 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)