stale

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /steɪl/ UK /steɪl/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
no longer fresh; lacking originality or interest

The bread had gone stale after sitting out all week.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · no longer fresh; lacking... musty flat old insipid trite hackneyed banal stagnant

Opposites

fresh new original novel crisp

Word family

Forms staleness

Derived forms stalenessstalely

Related forms stalemate

Simplified etymology

Stale originally described beer that had stood long enough to clear and perhaps improve in strength, rather than beer that had spoiled. From the early 16th century, the word was also applied to food.

Etymology

Middle English 'stale', probably from Anglo-Norman/Old French 'estaler', to halt or come to a stand, ultimately of Germanic origin and related to the notion of standing still (as wine left standing).

estaler Old French

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities

External links

# stale

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /steɪl/
**IPA (UK):** /steɪl/

## Meanings
1. no longer fresh; lacking originality or interest

## Examples
- The bread had gone stale after sitting out all week.

## Synonyms
- musty
- flat
- old
- insipid
- trite
- hackneyed
- banal
- stagnant

## Antonyms
- fresh
- new
- original
- novel
- crisp

## Derived Forms
- staleness
- stalely

## Related Forms
- stalemate

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: estaler

## Etymology
Middle English 'stale', probably from Anglo-Norman/Old French 'estaler', to halt or come to a stand, ultimately of Germanic origin and related to the notion of standing still (as wine left standing).

## AI Etymology
Stale continues Middle English 'stale', probably from Anglo-Norman/Old French 'estaler', to halt or come to a stand, ultimately of Germanic origin and related to the notion of standing still (as wine left standing). The historical chain includes Old French estaler. The quoted older senses, "stale" and "estaler", supply the semantic anchors for stale. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word stale carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "no longer fresh; lacking originality or interest". English derivatives include staleness and stalely; related English forms include stalemate. The result is a adj and verb whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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