stage

英文词源

stage

stage: [13] A stage (like a stable) is etymologically a ‘standing-place’. The word comes via Old French estage from Vulgar Latin *staticum ‘standing-place, position’, a derivative of Latin stāre ‘stand’ (to which English stand is distantly related). By the time it arrived in English it had acquired the additional connotation of a ‘set of positions one above the other’, and this led to its use in the more concrete senses ‘storey, floor’ and ‘raised platform’.

The specific application to a ‘platform in a theatre’ emerged in the mid-16th century. The sense ‘section of a journey’ (on which stagecoach [17] is based) developed at the end of the 16th century, presumably on the analogy of physical levels succeeding one another in ‘steps’ or ‘tiers’; and the further metaphoricization to ‘step in development’ took place in the 19th century.
=> stand

stage (n.)

mid-13c., "story of a building;" early 14c., "raised platform used for public display" (also "the platform beneath the gallows"), from Old French estage "building, dwelling place; stage for performance; phase, stage, rest in a journey" (12c., Modern French étage "story of a house, stage, floor, loft"), from Vulgar Latin *staticum "a place for standing," from Latin statum, past participle of stare "to stand," from PIE root *sta- "to stand, set down, make or be firm" (see stet). Meaning "platform for presentation of a play" is attested from late 14c.; generalized for "profession of an actor" from 1580s.

Sense of "period of development or time in life" first recorded early 14c., probably from Middle English sense of "degree or step on the 'ladder' of virtue, 'wheel' of fortune, etc.," in parable illustrations and morality plays. Meaning "a step in sequence, a stage of a journey" is late 14c. Meaning "level of water in a river, etc." is from 1814, American English.

Stage-name is from 1727. Stage-mother (n.) in the overbearing mother-of-an-actress sense is from 1915. Stage-door is from 1761, hence Stage-Door Johnny "young man who frequents stage doors seeking the company of actresses, chorus girls, etc." (1907). Stage whisper, such as used by an actor on stage to be heard by the audience, first attested 1865. Stage-manage (v.) is from 1871.

stage (v.)

early 14c., "to erect, construct," from stage (n.). The meaning "put into a play" is from c. 1600; that of "put (a play) on the stage" first recorded 1879; general sense of "to mount" (a comeback, etc.) is attested from 1924. Related: Staged; staging.