stall English · revision 39543

+ English has two words spelled ''stall'': the compartment or booth, with the verb "to stop, stick fast", and the decoy or delaying trick, with the verb "to play for time".^(MWU 2024)^(Ayto 2005) Both go back ultimately to a Germanic word for a position or place, but the second came through Anglo-Norman.^(Ayto 2005)^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * UK: /stɔːl/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ {{homograph|1|compartment; to stop}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=Old English|origins=gem-pro *stallaz}}

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The compartment is [[inh|enm|stal]], [[inh|ang|steall|t=standing place, position; stable]],^(Etymonline)^(OED 2026)^(Barnhart 1988)^(SOED 2002) [[inh|gem-pro|*stallaz]].^(Hoad 1986)^(Orel 2003)^(Kroonen 2013) It is cognate with [[ofs|stal]], [[nl|stal]], [[goh|stal]], [[de|Stall|t=stable]] and [[non|stallr|t=pedestal, stall for a horse]], and related to [[m|de|stellen|t=to place]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(Klein 1966)^(OED 2026) Hoad and Kroonen derive the Germanic noun from the base of [[stand]],^(Hoad 1986)^(Kroonen 2013)^(Ayto 2005) while Etymonline suggests [[ine-pro|*stel-|t=to put, stand]].^(Etymonline) Some senses, such as the stand for selling goods and the seat of office, were influenced by [[fro|estal|t=position, stall]], itself borrowed from Germanic.^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986)^(SOED 2002) The verb comes from several sources that merged: the noun, [[m|fro|estaler]], and shortenings of [[install]] and [[forestall]].^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ In Old English a standing place, position or state, and a place where cattle are kept, a stable.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The general sense "place, position" died out in the early 17th century,^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002) but the stall of a stable kept its meaning, and the word spread to other enclosed places: a seat of office (1399), the canopied seats of a church choir (c. 1400), a stand or booth for selling goods (late 14th century, implied in ''stallage'' as early as the mid-13th),^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) the seats nearest the stage in a theatre (1828), a parking space in North America (1940) and the cubicles of a washroom (1967).^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline) The verb first meant "to dwell" (c. 1315), then "to put an animal in a stall" (1390) and "to install in office" (Chaucer, c. 1384);^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline) hence the ''stalled ox'' of the Authorized Version, fattened in its stall.^(Skeat 1911)^(MWU 2024) "To come to a stand", and "to stick fast" in mud or snow, date from the 15th century.^(Etymonline)^(SOED 2002) Engines ''stalled'' from 1904 and aircraft by 1910,^(Etymonline) and the noun for this loss of power or lift followed (1916 in Merriam-Webster; 1918 for aircraft and 1959 for car engines in Etymonline).^(MWU 2024)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Old English – a place; a stable.^(OED 2026)

+ * c. 1315 – the verb, to dwell.^(OED 2026)

+ * c. 1384 – to install in office.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1390 – to put an animal in a stall.^(OED 2026)

+ * late 14th century – a booth for selling goods.^(Etymonline)

+ * c. 1400 – a seat in a church choir;^(Etymonline) also, of the verb, to come to a stand.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1828 – the stalls of a theatre.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1904 – of an engine, to stop.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1910 – of an aircraft, to lose lift.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1916 – the noun, loss of lift in an aircraft.^(MWU 2024)

+ * 1940 – a parking space (US).^(OED 2026)

+ * 1967 – a compartment in a washroom.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A compartment in a [[stable]] or shed for a single animal.^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)

+ # A small stand, booth or table from which goods are sold, as at a [[market]].^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)

+ # One of a row of enclosed seats in the choir of a church, for the clergy or choir.^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)

+ # (British, in plural) The seats on the ground floor of a theatre, nearest the stage.^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002)

+ # A small enclosed compartment, as for a [[shower]] or [[toilet]].^(SOED 2002)^(OED 2026)

+ # (North America) A marked [[parking]] space.^(SOED 2002)^(OED 2026)^(MWU 2024)

+ # A sudden stopping of an engine; in an [[aircraft]], a loss of lift caused by too steep an angle or too low a speed.^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)

+ # A finger-stall, a sheath for an injured finger.^(Hoad 1986)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # Of an engine or vehicle: to stop suddenly; to cause (an engine) to do this.^(SOED 2002)^(Collins 2023)

+ # To come to a standstill; to stick fast: ''the talks stalled over pay''.^(SOED 2002)^(MWU 2024)

+ # To put or keep (an animal) in a stall, especially for fattening.^(MWU 2024)^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[stallage]]

+ * [[stallholder]]

+ * [[finger-stall]]

+

+ {{homograph|2|decoy; to delay}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=borrowing|attested=?a1500, Chester Plays}}

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The decoy is [[bor|xno|estal]], a variant of [[m|xno|estale|t=decoy, pigeon used to lure a hawk]],^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002)^(Etymonline) the source also of the older English [[stale]] "decoy" (before 1425).^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(AHD 2024) Its form was influenced by the ''stall'' of a stable.^(MWU 2024)^(AHD 2024)^(Collins 2023) The Anglo-Norman word is probably of Germanic origin:^(Barnhart 1988)^(AHD 2024) Etymonline derives it from [[fro|estal|t=place, stand]], from [[frk|*stal-|t=position]],^(Etymonline) and Barnhart and Dictionary.com compare [[ang|stælhrān|t=decoy reindeer]], explaining that the decoy was kept in a fixed place.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Dictionary.com 2016)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A decoy bird, chiefly in figurative use: ?a1500, in the Chester Plays.^(OED 2026)^(SOED 2002) Barnhart dates the form ''stall'' to probably before 1500.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In the thieves' slang of Robert Greene's pamphlets on cony-catching (1591–92) a ''stall'' was a pickpocket's accomplice who distracted or hemmed in the victim, and ''to stall'' was to screen the theft.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)^(GDoS) From the diversion came the evasive excuse: Vaux's ''Flash Dictionary'' has ''stall off'' for getting rid of someone by a trick or a plausible story (1812 in Etymonline's dating, 1819 in the OED's),^(Etymonline)^(OED 2026) and around 1900 a ''stall-off'' was a pretence in Lancashire and Nottinghamshire dialect as well as in London.^(Wright 1898) By 1829 ''stall'' meant to put someone off,^(OED 2026) and in American English by 1903 to play for time or be evasive.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline) The noun for such a delaying tactic is recorded from 1945.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * ?a1500 – a decoy bird (obsolete by 1592).^(OED 2026)

+ * 1591 – a pickpocket's accomplice.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1592 – the verb, to screen a pickpocket.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1812 – ''stall off'', an evasive trick, in Etymonline's dating; 1819 in the OED.^(Etymonline)^(OED 2026)

+ * 1829 – to put someone off.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1851 – a pretext.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1903 – to play for time.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1945 – the noun, an act of stalling.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A trick or excuse used to delay or to hide one's real intentions.^(MWU 2024)^(SOED 2002)

+ # (slang) A pickpocket's accomplice who distracts the victim.^(MWU 2024)^(OED 2026)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To delay or avoid action by evasion; to play for time: ''he stalled until his lawyer arrived''.^(MWU 2024)^(OED 2026)

+ # To put off or hold back (someone) by evasion.^(OED 2026)^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[install]]

+ * [[forestall]]

+ * [[stallion]]

+ * [[stale]]

+ * [[stand]]

+ * [[pedestal]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}