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.
If you found this post on “Stair versus Stare” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.
| Stair | Stare |
|---|---|
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. |
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 Third person present verb: stares |
A set of steps leading from one floor of a building to another, typically inside the building
|
Noun: A long fixed or vacant look 1 [British; dialect] A starling 2 Verb, intransitive:
Verb, transitive:
|
| 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: 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: 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. |
|
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.
Resources for Stair versus Stare
Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: stare
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.
