Now dial. Forms: 1 stalu, 7 staile, stay1, 7, 9 stail, 3– stale. See also STEAL sb.1 [OE. stalu str. fem., related by ablaut to the synonymous stela STEAL sb.1 Cf. MFlem. stael (Kilian), WFlem. staal (De Bo), NFris. stal, staal masc., handle, WFris. stâlle.
The words stale and steal cannot be completely separated, as the spellings stale, stail may represent a dialectal pronunciation of steal, and on the other hand the sound which would be given in some dialects to stale would naturally be written steal by outsiders. For convenience, the examples with the spelling stail(e stale are placed here, and those with the spelling steal, steele, etc., under STEAL sb.1]
† 1. Each of the two upright sides of a ladder (obs.). Also (now dial.), a rung or step of a ladder. Also, the stave of a rack in a stable.
Cf. OE. hearpanstala ‘ceminigi’ (a. 1000 in Wr.-Wülcker, 203/36), perh. the side-pieces of a harp.
c. 1225. Ancr. R., 354. Scheome and pine … beoð þe two leddre stalen þet beoð upriht to þe heouene, and bitwonen þeos stalen beoð þe tindes ivestned of alle gode þeawes, bi hwuche me climbeð to þe blisse of heouene.
c. 1315. Shoreham, Poems, I. 49. Þis ilke laddre is charite, Þe stales gode þeawis.
1714. Savage, Art Prudence, 172. The first Stale of this Ladder of Fortune.
1887. Kent. Gloss., Stales, the staves, or risings of a ladder, or the staves of a rack in a stable.
1892. Daily News, 13 April, 6/5. [Letter from a former labourer in Kent.] Give the labourer easy access to the land, and thereby put the stails very close together in the bottom of the social ladder.
† b. fig. Position in a series. Obs. rare–1.
[This may perh. belong to STALL sb.1]
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 1002. Iasper hyȝt ȝe fyrst gemme … Saffer helde þe secounde stale.
2. A handle, esp. a long, slender handle, as the handle of a rake, etc. Also, the stem of a pipe, etc.
a. 1200. Sidonius Glosses, in Anecd. Oxon., I. v. 59/22. Ansae et ansulae alicuius rei sunt illa eminentia in illa re per quam capi possit .i. ‘stale.’
c. 1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXII. 279 (Vesp. MS.). And lerede men a ladel bygge with a long stale [v.r. stele].
1547. MS. Harl. 1419 lf. 145 b. Twoo forkes of mettall guilte, the stales beinge of glasse.
1624. in Simpkinson, Washingtons (1860), p. lvii. Pitch forke stailes.
1649–53. Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr. (ed. 3), 71. Thy Stail need not be so long as a naturall Spade-stail.
a. 1652. Brome, Covent Gard., I. i. stage-dir., A Table bottle, light, and Tobacco stales.
1675. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (ed. 2), 251. Which Net you hold strongly against the place, by the help of a Stail or handle that is fixed athwart the Bow.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 343/1. The Mallet when it is large, and a long Stail or Handle, is termed a Maul by Wood Men. Ibid., III. xxi. (Roxb.), 253/2. He beareth Sable a Dung fork,… Argent, the shank or staile.
1742. Lond. & Country Brewer, I. (ed. 4), 61. In Case your Cask is a Butt,… have ready boiling … Water, which put in, and, with a long Stale and a little Birch fastened to its End, scrub the Bottom.
1828. Mech. Mag., IX. 238. They are set like unto a hoe for a stroke with a straight stail (handle).
1890. Manch. Guardian, 4 Feb., 12/3. You came to me with the axe head in one hand and the stale in the other.
3. A stalk or stem.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., XI. 194. And theryn do pistacis iij by tale, And of hem all vp wol ther ryse a stale [germen].
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Stail, the stalk of a flower or fruit.
4. The stem of an arrow or spear.
1553. Brende, Q. Curtius, ix. 192. The Surgians cut of the stale of that shaft in suche wise, that they moued not the heade that was wythin the fleshe.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 276/1. Hastile,… a speare staffe or the shaft and stale of a iaueline.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, IV. 173. Seeing th’arrowes stale without.
