stead
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: stěd
ipa: /stɛd/
rhymes: -ɛd
Forms: form: steads
Etymology: From Middle English sted, stede (noun) and steden (verb), from Old English stede, from Proto-Germanic *stadiz (“place”), from Proto-Indo-European *stéh₂tis (“standing, location”). Doublet of stad.
cognates and related terms
Cognate with Scots steid (“location, place”), North Frisian Stair, Stat, steed, stää (“city, town; place, stead”), Saterland Frisian Steede (“place, stead”), Stääd (“city, town”), West Frisian stêd (“city, town”), Bavarian Stådt (“city, town”), Dutch stad, stede (“city, town”), German Stadt (“city, town”), Statt (“abode, place, stead”), Stätte (“place, spot, venue”), German Low German Stee (“location, place”), Luxembourgish Stad (“city, town”), Vilamovian śtaod (“city, town”), Yiddish שטאָט (shtot, “city, town”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål stad (“city, town”), sted (“place”), Faroese stað (“place”), staður (“location, place; town”), Icelandic staður (“location, place”), Norn sta (“domicile, farm”), Norwegian Nynorsk stad (“place; city, town”), Swedish stad, stadh, stedt (“city, town”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌸𐍃 (staþs, “location, place”). See the doublet stasis.
Senses: examples: text: For he ne wonneth in one certaine stead, / But restlesse walketh all the world around[…].
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: The three Princes ceased not travelling together for seven days, at the end of which time one said to other, "Let us separate and let each make search in a different stead, so haply shall we hit upon our need."
ref: 1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night:
text: "[…] I went to another stead in the yard to be further from her cries."
ref: 2019, James Meek, To Calais, In Ordinary Time:
glosses: A place, or spot, in general; location.
examples: text: There now the hart, fearlesse of greyhound, feeds, / And loving pelican in safety breeds; / There shrieking satyres fill the people's emptie steads.
ref: 1633, P. Fletcher, Purple Island:
glosses: A place where a person normally rests; a seat.
glosses: An inhabited place; a settlement, city, town etc.
examples: text: But of course I could not do this by myself, so I took a Hottentot—a very clever man when he was not drunk—who lived on the stead, into my confidence.
ref: 1889 December, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “[Allan’s Wife] The Baboon-Woman”, in Allan’s Wife and Other Tales, London: Spencer Blackett, […], →OCLC, page 123:
text: Nordic types may turn to Frigga as queen mother of Asgard, or even to good friend Thor, known to gladly bless a new stead and to party with the best.
ref: 2008, Bronwynn Forrest Torgerson, One Witch's Way, page 5:
text: Only when he reached the stead road, and Wildebeast, did he concentrate on the image of carrion, of food for the sandwolf pack.
ref: 2010, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Darknesses, page 25:
glosses: An estate, a property with its grounds; a farm; a homestead.
examples: text: The genial bed / Sallow the feet, the borders, and the stead.
ref: 1693, John Dryden, Baucis and Philemon:
glosses: The frame on which a bed is laid; a bedstead.
examples: text: She was so wretched and so vehement, complained so much of injustice in being expected to go away instead of Anne; Anne, who was nothing to Louisa, while she was her sister, and had the best right to stay in Henrietta's stead!
ref: 1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=III or IV), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC:
text: His nurse had told him all about changelings, and how the little people would always try to steal a beautiful human child out of its cradle and put in its stead one of their own ailing, puking brats […]
ref: 1961, Muriel Saint Clare Byrne, Elizabethan Life in Town and Country, page 285:
text: Had Daniel Ortega not got himself illegally on to this year’s ballot to seek a third term, his wife might have run in his stead.
ref: 2011 March 31, “Kin selection”, in The Economist:
glosses: The position or function (of someone or something), as taken on by a successor.
raw_tags: of a person or thing
examples: text: One may not expect to entirely stop the oncoming energy but the outgoing stands in a different stead, for in this a certain amount of ruling is possible by the native.
ref: 1902, Alvidas, Science and Key of Life: Planetary Influences, volume 1:
text: For instance, those who operate under generally available terms and conditions or whose interconnection agreements do not confer a contractual right to the BOC performance they seek under section 271 may stand in a different stead than those who have pursued claims that a BOC has failed to perform as required by agreement.
ref: 2000, FCC Record:
text: He had intended to create diamonds with his experiments, but the accidental discovery of such amazingly explosive chemical reactions served him in a different stead.
ref: 2013, Kevin J. Anderson, Clockwork Angels:
glosses: A place as it relates to a role, service, or ability; capacity.
examples: text: Though small and delicate-looking, she gave an impression of intense earnestness and latent toughness, qualities that stood her in good stead when she dared to challenge the most intrusive communist society in eastern Europe.
ref: 2010 September 19, Dan van der Vat, The Guardian:
glosses: A relational or circumstantial position; standing.
examples: text: Anthropology in India started in a different stead than what was the situation of its emergence in other countries.
ref: 1969, Proceedings of the Indian Science Congress:
text: I shiver to the cold solitude
Overwhelming desire to have a different stead
I don't know why
I don't know why
I'm just afraid to fly […]
ref: 2013, Sonnia De Guzman, Collected Poems, page 41:
text: It is not only the sheer size of its endowment or the range and extent of its network ties that place it in a different stead to other unofficial actors.
ref: 2014, Michael Moran, Private Foundations and Development Partnerships:
text: The Adidas shirts look fantastic and certainly put us in a different stead.
ref: 2019, Davinder Sangha, White Shorts, White Socks:
text: Adding to the hem of a holy garment suggests a desire to be in a different stead.
ref: 2021, C.E. Young, The Naked Truth Unveiled, page 67:
glosses: A place as it relates to situation, circumstance, or status; condition.
Derived terms: abbeystead
bedstead
farmstead
hearthstead
homestead
in good stead
in one's stead
instead
in the stead of
playstead
pondstead
ranchstead
roadstead
sunstead
wallstead
workstead