STAVE

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Dr. Goodword
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STAVE

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Jun 20, 2011 10:42 pm

• stave •

Pronunciation: stayv • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive

Meaning: 1. To crush, especially inward, to push or cave (in) violently, to jam, as to stave in a finger. 2. To break up or puncture staves, as to stave in a barrel or a wooden boat. 3. (with off) To repel or prevent, as to stave off hunger.

Notes: This word is used more often in some dialect areas than others. As a result, its past tense form, stove, is often confused with the present tense. Remember: "I never stave my finger but yesterday I stove it pretty badly." This happens when something hits the end of an extended finger and jams it. (Staved also serves in the past tense these days.) We may also stave off something unpleasant. This means to repel it, prevent it from happening, as to stave off hunger with a crust of bread.

In Play: The original sense of this word was the act of breaking up or caving in the staves of barrels: "During Prohibition, staving liquor and wine was a major task of law enforcement officers." Notice we do not even need to mention "barrels" in this sense. In the US this word is also used in the sense of jamming a finger or similar object, pushing it inwards: "When Slick fell forward, he extended his hands for protection and stove in one of his fingers."

Word History: Today's Good Word came from the noun stave, in the sense of a barrel stave. Stave, in its turn, is a back-formation from the old plural of staff, which was staves, similar to life and lives. Hence the original sense of today's word is "to break in or up the staves of a barrel". It was then expanded to breaking up the planks of a wooden boat and thence to breaking up anything, especially by pushing it in. The original PIE root was stebh- "post, stem, support" which we see in Russian stebel' "stem". In German the same root produced Stab "staff" and Stamm "stem", and in Greek staphyle "grapevine". (Let's stave off any question of our gratitude to Joe Heckel for suggesting today's Good Word with this word of gratitude to him.)
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sluggo
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Postby sluggo » Tue Jun 21, 2011 9:54 am

One Mr Albert Pujols will be comforted to know there's a word for this kind of injury. I never heard this one before.

When I see stave I think of music.
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Slava
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Postby Slava » Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:58 pm

One Mr Albert Pujols will be comforted to know there's a word for this kind of injury. I never heard this one before.

When I see stave I think of music.
Good point.

I guess we could re-make Marvin Gaye's song as "I heard it through the staphyle."

Now, how did staff come to mean a group of workers in an office?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Wed Jun 22, 2011 4:18 pm

I really enjoy movies, e.g. Robin Hood-like, where a
couple of Little John types go at it with staves.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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bamaboy56
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Postby bamaboy56 » Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:08 am

Here in the Deep South I hear this word alot, usually in the past tense form (see the Notes section). It's used in a sentence like "I was stove in", meaning "I'm physically exhausted". It's also used as "The day after working out at the gym, I was stove up" to say "My muscles are sore and I can hardly move". It's a Southern thang.
Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I'm going to change myself. -- Rumi

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Slava
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Postby Slava » Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:21 am

"Stove in" seems to have a familiar ring, though I can't supply a source. "Stove up" is new to me.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

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bamaboy56
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Postby bamaboy56 » Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:27 am

See? You learn something new every day. I love this site! :D
Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I'm going to change myself. -- Rumi

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Slava
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Postby Slava » Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:30 am

See? You learn something new every day. I love this site! :D
I'll go along with that.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


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