Word Confusion: Stair versus Stare

Posted June 30, 2016 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
12 July 2023

“She staired at him in disbelief. How could he do this to her?

I don’t know about you, but I’d wonder how she could “stair” at someone. Does she throw one of those pre-made stair riser things?

Then there was the story in which “he took the stares three at a time, as he rushed to . . .”

Oh, boy. I suppose the character could have been metaphorically “ignoring” the stares as he rushed somewhere, but it sure seemed like he was running up some stairs in the sentence.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Stair Stare

Diagram showing the parts of a stair

Stairway Measurements is Jaksmata’s own work under the CC BY-SA 3.0 or the GFDL license, via Wikimedia Commons.

Now you know what the parts of a stair are as well.


Two physics student stare at or in a Goniometer-Spectrometer

Physik-Praktikum is courtesy of Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-P1216-0020 / Raphael (verehel. Grubitzsch), Waltraud under the CC BY-SA 3.0 de license, via Wikimedia Commons.

Marta stares in fascination at the Goniometer-Spectrometer.

Part of Grammar:
Noun

Plural: stairs

Noun 1, 2; Verb 1, intransitive & transitive

Plural for the noun: stares
Gerund: staring

Third person present verb: stares
Past tense or past participle: stared
Present participle: staring

A set of steps leading from one floor of a building to another, typically inside the building

  • A single step in a set of stairs
Noun:
A long fixed or vacant look 1

[British; dialect] A starling 2

Verb, intransitive:
Look fixedly or vacantly at someone or something with one’s eyes wide open 1

  • [Of a person’s eyes] Be wide open, with a fixed or vacant expression
  • [Of a thing] Be unpleasantly prominent or striking

Verb, transitive:
Stare down 1

  • To cause to become uncomfortable by gazing steadily at one
  • Overcome by staring
Examples:
He came rushing down the stairs.

Watch out for that bottom stair.

The third step up on those stairs creaks in the middle.

He sprang up the stairs with a snarl.

Noun:
She gave him a cold stare.

Helena trembled as her boss fixed her brother with a hard stare.

Verb, intransitive:
He stared at her in amazement.

Robin sat staring into space, her mind numb.

Her gray eyes stared back at him.

The obituaries stared out at us.

Seeing the soldiers arrayed before us made us realize we were staring defeat in the face.

Verb, transitive:
He was amazing as he stared that bull down.

Jenny, that man over there is staring at me!

The policeman found her staring at nothing.

Katy wasn’t going to let that jerk stare me down.

Derivatives:
Adjective: stairless, stairlike
Noun: downstairs, staircase, stairway, stairwell
Adverb: staringly
Noun: starer
Phrasal Verb
stare someone down
History of the Word:
Old English stæger is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch steiger meaning scaffolding, from a base meaning climb.
  1. Old English starian is of Germanic origin, from a base meaning be rigid.
  2. Old English stær.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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Resources for Stair versus Stare

Apple Dictionary.com

Dictionary.com: stare

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Pinterest Photo Credits

Stair Machine is Teemeah‘s own work under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license and Randa Kamel Egyptian Bellydancer, 2007, is Judith Scheepstra’s own work under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Both are via Wikimedia Commons.

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