A Dictionary of Cont..

stti 472
means several such groups. The singular form
may be used with a singular verb or with a
plural verb, depending on whether the staff is
thought of as a unit or as individuals, as in
:he staff was well trained or the staff were well
trained. In either case, it is the whole body of
assistants that is referred to. Sometimes the
word staff is used as if it were a true plural
meaning more than one staff member, as in
a few staff were invited. This is not at present
standard English.
staff of life. The description of bread as the staff
of life goes back to the early seventeenth
century where it came into use as an adaptation
or echo of several passages in the Bible in which
bread is called the stay and stafl and the cutting
off of the food supply is described poetically
as breaking the staff of bread. The phrase is
now, in general use, hackneyed and stilted.
stag. See hart.
stage; arrange; perform. From its basic sense as
a transitive verb, to put, represent, or exhibit on
or as on a stage, stage has come rather loosely
to mean arrange or, even more loosely,
perform. In military usage it is quite proper to
refer to the High Command as having staged
the Normandy invasion, for the underlying
meaning here seems to be “to erect a stage for”
or “to travel by stages.” It is not advisable, however,
to say that a country is staging an economic
comeback (unless it is meant that the
country is coming back by stages) when accomplishing,
performing, or making would be more
accurate.
stage whisper. For a whisper on the stage, as a
necessary part of the action of the play, loud
enough for the entire audience to hear and yet,
by dramatic convention, accepted as unheard
by such members of the cast on the stage as
are not supposed to have heard it, a stage
whisper is the established term. But aunlied to
any whisper elsewhere that is loud enough to
be heard by all present, it is a clicht.
stagger. The use of stagger to mean to arrange in
some other order or manner than the regular
or uniform or usual one, especially at such
intervals that there is a continuous overlapping
(By staggering ofice hours for employees,
managers of large downtown concerns help
solve morning and evening trafic problems.
Divorce seems to be a form of staggered polygamy)
is now standard American usage and
is becoming accepted in England.
This meaning would appear to be a figurative
extension of a special use of the verb to stagger
by wheelwrights, who staggered spokes into the
hub when they set them alternately inside and
outside (or more or less to one side of) a line
drawn round the hub. A wheel made in this
manner (for increased strength) was said to be
a staggered wheel.
staggers. This word, meaning a disease of certain
animals, is always treated as a singular, as in
staggers is hard to treat.
staid. See stay.
stai; stairs. In Scotland a flight of steps is called
a stair and treated as a singular, as in a winding
stair and the stair was dark. In England a flight
of steps is treated as a plural, ELS in the stairs
were dark, or called a flight of stairs, or sometimes
a pair of stairs. Both constructions are
familiar in the United States and are equally
acceptable.
In England one of the steps in a Right is
called a stair and three stairs means three steps.
This usage is rare in the United States. Here
three stairs will usually be understood in the
Scottish sense, as three flights.
When used as the first element in a compound,
the singular form stair is preferred, as
in stair door, stair well, stair carpet. This does
not apply to the two words upstairs and downstairs.
Here the form with s is always used, as
in an upstairs room.
stalactite; stalagmite. These geological terms confuse
the layman. He can never keep in mind
which hangs down like an icicle and which rises
up from the floor. Both are deposits of calcium
carbonate formed by the dripping of percolating
calcareous water in caves and sometimes
they meet to form a column. The one that hangs
down is a stalactite. The one that builds up
from the floor is a stalagmite. Perhaps it would
help if icicle were fixed in the mind and it was
remembered that the one that resembles an
icicle is the one that contains a c.
stall, in the sense of bringing to a standstill, checking
the motion of, is obsolete or dialectal in
England but is standard and common in
America (Korean truce talks were stalled over
the issue of prisoner exchanges). In the sense of
acting evasively or deceptively and in its use
as a noun to designate anything used as a pretext,
pretense, or trick, stall is slang.
stalls. See orchestra.
stamen. The plural is stamens or stamina. Either
plural may be used in botany. In general
English the form stamina is also used to mean
vigor or endurance. In this sense the word is
always treated as a singular, as in his stamina
is amazing, and does not have a plural.
stanch; staunch. Though both forms are acceptable
as adjectives and verbs, stanch is the usual
verb, staunch the usual adjective. The verbal
sense is to stop the flow of a liquid, especially
blood (He stanched the bleeding with a cold
compress). The adjectival sense is steadfast or
firm in principle, adherence, or loyalty (He had
only a few friends, but they were staunch ones
and could be relied on).
stand. The past tense is stood. The participle is
also stood.
Stand, meaning “endure,” may be followed
by an infinitive, as in I cannot stand to hear it,
or by the -ing form of a verb, as in I cannot
stand hearing it, Stand may also be followed by
a clause, with the clause verb a subjunctive
equivalent, as in I cannot stand that he should
hear it, but an infinitive construction, such as
I cannot stand to have him hear it, is generally
preferred. Stand for is frequently used in the
United States when determination rather than
endurance is being expressed, as in I will not
stand for such treatment.