Word: stance Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English staunce (“place to stand; battle station; position; standing in society; circumstance, situation; stanchion”), from Old French estance (“predicament; situation; sojourn, stay”) (compare modern French stance (“stanza; position one stands in when golfing”)), from Italian stanza (“room, standing place; stanza”), from Vulgar Latin *stantia, from Latin stō (“to stand; to remain, stay”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”). The word is cognate with Spanish estante (“shelf”) and a doublet of stanza. The verb is derived from the noun. Compare typologically Czech postoj (“stance (the way of holding a body); stance (point of view)”) (cognate via PIE). Also see position, posture. Pronunciation: /stæns/, [stɛəns], [stɛːns], /stɑːns/, /stɐːns/ 1. The manner, pose, or posture in which one stands. Example: The fencer’s stance showed he was ready to begin. Example: Stance and gait are best examined with the patient barefoot; meaningful findings can be obtained only if the patient has enough room to walk in. The testing of stance and gait often provides important clues to the type of disease process that is present. 2. One's opinion or point of view. Example: I don’t agree with your stance on gun control. Example: His [François Hollande's] stance as being against the world of finance and his proposal of a 75% tax on incomes over €1m (£817,000) was approved by a majority in polls. He was convinced that his more measured, if ploddingly serious, style would win out with an electorate tired of [Nicolas] Sarkozy's bling and frenetic policy initiatives. 3. A place to stand; a position, a site, a station. Example: No! sooner may the Saxon lance / Unfix Benledi from his stance, / Than doubt or terror can pierce through / The unyielding heart of Robert Dhu; […] Example: The British host had stood / That morn 'gainst charge of sword and lance / As their own ocean-rocks hold stance, / But when thy voice had said, "Advance!" / They were their ocean's flood.— […] 4. A place to stand; a position, a site, a station. Labels: specifically Example: In a harness belay, the stance itself is the belayer's first line of defense, reducing the load the anchor must hold. The anchor in this case serves as little more than a backup (albeit a critical one) to the stance. Example: There is always the option of clambering up slightly higher and building a new belay station (stance), take in the rope for a fellow climber, once again clamber up higher and once again build a new, higher stance … and so on until the rope reaches the stop where the upper end of the rope has become caught in the rock. 5. A place for buses or taxis to await passengers; a bus stop, a taxi rank. Labels: Scotland Example: The number of Carriages at each of the Stances or divisions of Stances, and the spaces to be occupied, shall be fixed from time to time as may be found necessary. In the event of any New Stance being appointed during the currency of these Regulations, if said Stance shall be within half a mile of the nearest fixed Stance, the Fares from said New Stance shall be the same as from the Stance nearest to it. 6. A place where a fair or market is held; a location where a street trader can carry on business. Labels: Scotland Example: To the action by the proprietor of a tenement in burgh against the proprietor of the adjoining stance to recover one-half the cost of a mutual gable, of which the defender had taken the use, it was pleaded in defence (1) that the mutual gable having been erected by the common author of the parties no claim arose to the proprietor of one stance against the proprietor of the other; […] 7. A stanza. Labels: obsolete, rare Example: Other Muſique, and voyces; and this ſecond Stance was ſung, directing their obſeruance to the King. […] This ended the Phœbades ſung the third Stance.