staple
/ˈsteɪ.pəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.68 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A town containing merchants who have exclusive right, under royal authority, to purchase or produce certain goods for export; also, the body of such merchants seen as a group.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The customs of Alexandria were very great, it having been the staple of the Indian trade."
- "For the increase of trade and the encouragement of the worthy burgesses of Woodstock, her majesty was minded to erect the town into a staple for wool."
- "Calais was one of the ‘principal treasures’ of the crown, of both strategic and economic importance. It was home to the staple, the crown-controlled marketplace for England's lucrative textile trade, whose substantial customs and tax revenues flooded into Henry's coffers."
- "Whitehall naturally became the chief staple of news. Whenever there was a rumour that anything important had happened or was about to happen, people hastened thither to obtain intelligence from the fountain head."
- "The old staple of coal is a declining traffic; and what remains tends to be hauled a shorter distance, as new power stations are sited closer to coalfields."
- "Rice is a staple in the diet of many cultures."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *stebʰ-der.? Proto-Germanic *stapulaz Frankish *stapulbor. Late Latin stapula Old French estaple Anglo-Norman staplebor. Middle English staple English staple From Middle English staple, from Anglo-Norman estaple, Old French estaple (“market, (trading) post”), from Late Latin stapula, from Frankish *stapul, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *stapulaz (“post”), from Proto-Indo-European *stebʰ- (“post, stem”). Compare staff. Doublet of étape and etymology 2.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: staple, estaple, stapula, *stapul, *stapulaz, *stebʰ-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsteɪ.pəl/
- British English: /ˈsteɪ.pəl/