stasis

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin stasis,^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek στάσις (stásis, “a standing, standing still, stoppage”),^[2][5][6][7] formed from the stem of ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to cause to stand”) and a noun suffix,^[3][8][6] from Proto-Indo-European *sta- (“to stand, make or be firm”).^[5][6][9] The Greek noun is related to στατός (statós, “placed”),^[6][5] and also to Latin stō (“to stand”),^[10] and stand and state come from the same root.^[7][6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stoppage in the circulation of a body fluid, especially of the blood: 1745, in R. James's Medicinal Dictionary.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

English took the word as a medical term, a narrow use of a Greek noun that had also meant a position, a state or condition, and a party or faction, especially a seditious one.^[5][11] The medical sense is still current,^[12][3] and it also covers other flows, such as the contents of the intestines.^[3][11] The general sense of inactivity or unchanging balance appeared only in 1920, in the Glasgow Herald.^[2][5] In 1942 a translation of Wilhelm Reich used it for a supposed build-up of repressed sexual energy.^[2][5] The Greek sense "faction, discord" was taken over in 1933, in R. J. Bonner's Aspects of Athenian Democracy.^[2] Collins also labels the "no action or progress" sense as a term of literary criticism, as in dramatic stasis.^[10]

Timeline

• 1745 – stoppage of the circulation of a body fluid.^[2][3][5]
• 1920 – inactivity, stagnation, motionless balance.^[2][5]
• 1933 – party faction, civil strife.^[2]
• 1942 – in Reich's theory, a build-up of repressed sexual energy.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A slowing or stoppage of the normal flow of a body fluid such as blood or of the contents of the intestines: venous stasis.^{[3][10][11][12]}
2. A state of inactivity or no change; stagnation, or a balance between opposing forces: The peace talks have settled into stasis.^[3][10][2]
3. (psychoanalysis) A build-up of unused or repressed libidinal energy.^[2][11]
4. Party faction or civil strife, after the Greek sense.^[2][11]

Word family

• bacteriostasis
• cytostasis
• hemostasis

Related words

• static
• stand
• state
• apostasy
• metastasis

Usage notes

The plural is stases.^[11][3][5]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins