staid
/steɪd
/- In mathematics he strove to preserve something of what seemed a more staid and sober tradition.
- New England in the 19th century was the apex of conformity: staid, stuffy and abstemious.
- Yorkshire food is traditionally seen as staid and stodgy, but can be modern and exciting.
Synonyms
Derivatives
staidly
- The Constitution is fascinating precisely because it is so staidly civilized: because it is not a product of, nor has it presided over fire, pestilence and revolution.
- If I had staidly accepted one of those two guys, I would have forfeited the opportunity of being among those lucky ones.
- In Raisin, her hair is staidly slicked down; at Zankel, it corkscrewed out in all directions, even as her renditions of fifteen songs let loose multidimensional sparks.
staidness
- One of the main criticisms of political access programmes in decades past was their staidness and conservatism.
- Young Adam is based on a 1954 novel by Alexander Trocchi, the Glasgow-born writer affiliated to the Beats, whose life and work were very much a revolt against British insularity and staidness, and against Scotland itself.
- Indeed, Shiri's impassioned vocal performance clearly outstrips Lise's, with only a certain old-fashioned staidness of approach letting the song down.
Origin
Mid 16th century: archaic past participle of stay1.
stationer from Middle English:
In the Middle Ages stationers sold not stationery, writing materials but books. The word comes from medieval Latin stationarius, referring to a tradesman who had a shop or stall at a fixed location, as opposed to one who travelled around selling their wares. The ultimate source is Latin statio ‘standing’, which is also the root of stationary with an a, ‘not moving’ and station (Middle English). In medieval England selling parchment, paper, pens, and ink was a branch of the bookseller's trade, and in due course booksellers became known as stationers. Statue (Middle English) and related words come from the same Latin root as do stature (Middle English) which originally meant ‘height when standing’, status (late 18th century) ‘legal standing’, and statute (Middle English), a law that had been set up. The verb to stay (Late Middle English) is yet another word from the root. Staid (late 16th century) is an archaic past of stay, describing a character that is fixed in its ways.