staple – English noun declension

English noun forms of staple

Noun: staple
Singularstaple
Pluralstaples

Sample Sentences

  • The customs of Alexandria were very great, it having been the staple of the Indian trade. [1727, John Arbuthnot, Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights and Measures. Explain'd and exemplify'd in several dissertations:]
  • 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. [1821 January 8, [Walter Scott], Kenilworth; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; and John Ballantyne, […]; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:]
  • 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. [2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 73:]
  • 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. [1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:]
  • 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. [1961 October, “Editorial: The importance of the "Roadrailer"”, in Trains Illustrated, page 577:]
  • Rice is a staple in the diet of many cultures.
  • Lurid stories are a staple of tabloid journalism.
  • In most countries, rubbish makes headlines only when it is not collected, and stinking sacks lie heaped on the streets. In Britain bins are a front-page staple. [2010, The Economist, Jul-Aug 2010, p. 27:]
  • MTV quickly became a staple of pop culture after its launch, and was tied to countless historic moments in music, including the world premiere of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ video and the 16-hour broadcast of the Live Aid concerts in 1985. [2026 January 1, Max Pilley, “MTV shuts down final music-only channels with ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’”, in NME:]
  • Tow is flax with short staple.

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *stebʰ-der.?
3. Proto-Germanic *stapulaz
4. Frankish *stapulbor.
5. Late Latin stapula
6. Old French estaple
7. Anglo-Norman staplebor.
8. Middle English staple
9. English staple
10. 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. See: Middle English Nouns 'staple'.

Verbs referencing "staple"

Spanish Nouns etapa, German Nouns Staffel, Old Norse Nouns stapi.