# stair
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English steire, staire, stayre, stayer, steir, steyre, steyer, from Old English stǣġer (“stair, staircase”), from Proto-West Germanic *staigri, from Proto-Germanic *staigriz (“stairs, scaffolding”), from Proto-Indo-European *steygʰ- (“to walk, proceed, march, climb”).
Cognate with Dutch steiger (“a stair, step, wharf, pier, scaffolding”), Middle Low German steiger, steir (“scaffolding”), German Low German Steiger (“a scaffold; trestle”). Related to Old English āstǣġan (“to ascend, go up, embark”), Old English stīġan (“to go, move, reach; ascend, mount, go up, spring up, rise; scale”), German Stiege (“a flight of stairs”). More at sty.

### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /stɛɚ/
** Audio (US):(file)
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /stɛə/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General Australian) IPA: /steː/
* (New Zealand, cheer–chair merger) IPA: /stiə/
* (New Zealand, without the cheer–chair merger) IPA: /steə/
* (Scotland) IPA: /steɹ/
* (Lancashire, fair–fur merger) IPA: /stɜː(ɹ)/
* Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
* Homophones: stare; steer (cheer–chair merger); stir (fair–fur merger)

### Noun

stair (plural stairs)
* A single step in a staircase.
    Synonym: step
* A series of steps; a staircase.
** 1899, Hughes Mearns, Antigonish:Yesterday, upon the stair / I met a man who wasn’t there / He wasn’t there again today / I wish, I wish he’d go away …

#### Usage notes

* Stairs and stair are used to refer to a single staircase, mostly interchangeably in the UK.

#### Synonyms

* (Cockney rhyming slang) apples and pears

#### Derived terms

* above-stairs
* downstairs
* forestair
* missing stair
* screw stair
* staircase
* stairgate, stair gate
* stair glider
* stair hall
* stair lift
* stair railings
* stair rod
* stairs
* stair-step
* stair-stepping
* stairway
* stairwell
* stair-wire
* stair wire
* upstairs

#### Translations
### See also

* ladder
* landing
* scaffold

### Anagrams

* ISTAR, Ritsa, Sarti, Sitar, Trias, airts, arist, astir, sitar, stria, tarsi, tiars, tisar

## Irish
### Alternative forms

* sdair (obsolete)

### Etymology

From Old Irish stoir, from Latin historia, from Ancient Greek ἱστορίᾱ (historíā). Doublet of stór.

### Pronunciation

* (Munster, Connacht) IPA: /sˠt̪ˠaɾʲ/
* (Ulster) IPA: /sˠt̪ˠæɾʲ/

### Noun

stair f (genitive singular staire, nominative plural startha)
* history
* account, story
* (literary) repute, fame

#### Declension

bare forms
singular
plural
nominative
stair
startha
vocative
a stair
a startha
genitive
staire
startha
dative
stair
startha
forms with the definite article
singular
plural
nominative
an stair
na startha
genitive
na staire
na startha
dative
leis an stair don stair
leis na startha :

#### Derived terms

* bréagstair
* stairiúil

### References

* ↑ “stair”, in Historical Irish Corpus, 1600–1926, Royal Irish Academy
* ↑ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “stair”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
* ↑ “stair”, in Irish Pronunciation Database, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2025
* ↑ Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, § 75, page 32

### Further reading

* Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “stair”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
* de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “stair”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
* “stair”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013-2025