• Today's Word

Staid

🔊 Listen to the word Staid

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Definition

(adjective) Sedate, respectable, and unadventurous; resistant to change or excitement; marked by settled, even dull, conventionality.

Example

The new curator’s bold acquisitions rattled the museum’s staid board of trustees, who had grown comfortable with decades of cautious, predictable programming.

Word Origin

From the past participle of the Middle English verb stay, meaning “to restrain or hold back” — itself derived from Old French estayer, meaning “to prop or support.” The sense of being held in place, restrained from movement or change, carried directly into the adjective. The word settled into its current meaning by the 16th century, describing people or institutions so thoroughly propped up by convention that forward movement had become impossible.

Fun Fact

The concept of staidness has played a surprisingly pivotal role in the history of popular music. Nearly every major musical movement of the 20th century defined itself explicitly against the staid conventions of what came before — jazz against Victorian parlor music, rock and roll against the staid ballads of the early 1950s, punk against the bloated arena rock it saw as having become complacent and respectable. Cultural historians have noted that “staid” functions almost like a timer in popular culture: the moment a movement becomes the establishment, the next generation begins organizing against it. Rebellion, it turns out, needs staidness the way fire needs oxygen.