staff of life
/ˈstæf ə(v)ˌlaɪf/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.02 in modern English
23
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
1
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "It was reserved for Christians to torture bread, the staff of life, bread for which children in whole districts wail, bread, the gift of pasture to the poor, bread, for want of which thousands of our fellow beings annually perish by famine; it was reserved for Christians to torture the material of bread by fire, to create a chemical and maddening poison, burning up the brain and brutalizing the soul, and producing evils to humanity, in comparison of which, war, pestilence, and famine, cease to be evils."
- "The round calabash is a perfect image for the feminine womb, within which the arduously pounded taro is contained and then offered as the very staff of life."
- "Corn was the staff of life for many Indian people before contact, and it became the staff of life for many European colonists. Corn was higher in nutrition than most other grain crops. John Lawson, who travelled in South Carolina and into the interior Indian country in 1701, was one of the many colonists who sang the praises of corn."
Etymology
By extension from the Biblical phrase “break the staff of bread” (Hebrew מַטֶּה לֶחֶם (maté lékhem)), staff (“long, straight rod”) in this context meaning something that acts as a support: see, for example, Leviticus 26:26 (King James Version; spelling modernized): “And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied”; and Ezekiel 4:16: “[…] Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care, and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment: […]”. Compare Egyptian ḫt n ꜥnḫ (“grain; food”, literally “stick or wood of life”).
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈstæf ə(v)ˌlaɪf/
- British English: /ˈstɑːf ə(v)ˌlaɪf/