staddle

Meanings

Noun

• A prop or support; a staff, crutch.
• The lower part or supporting frame of a stack, a stack-stand.
• Any supporting framework or base.
• A small tree; sapling.
• One of the separate plots into which a cock of hay is shaken out for the purpose of drying.

Verb

• To form staddles of hay.
• To mark a sapling to be spared during a cut down of trees.

Origin

• From Middle English stathel, from Old English staþol ("foundation, base, support, position, site, estate"), from Proto-Germanic *staþulaz ("position, standing"), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-, *sth₂-. Cognate with Middle Low German stadel ("barn"), German Stadel ("barn"), Old Danish stedel ("ground, croft"), Icelandic stöðull ("position"). More at stand.