Just Stop It

Sometimes one word can develop two meanings and eventually two slightly different words that can be confused or in some cases substituted for each other.



Stanch and staunch are two of those words. A quick perusal of both words in the dictionary shows that for each word the other is listed as a variation in spelling. So confusion can easily occur since you can spell the word "officially" in either way without regard to meaning. It's also interesting to note that the second listing for stanch is a "variation of staunch" while staunch is first listed as a variation of stanch before it's listed in its own right. So in a very tight race, use stanch for either meaning wins over separate meanings for each spelling.



Let me get deep into old languages here for a minute just to demonstrate how convoluted etymology can become. Stanch comes to us most recently from the Middle English word staunchen, which they got from the Middle French word estancher, which is perhaps (it is sssumed to be) from the Vulgar Latin sord stanticare (Vulgar in this sense refers to that which was used in common expression rather than formal communication.) Stanticare comes from the Latin stant- or stans. It's indicated to become the word stanch in the 14th century. That's how stanch came to be.



How did we get staunch? The same dictionary says it comes from the Middle English and Middle French, but from the feminine form of the word which is estanche (rather than estancher for stanch). We don't get to estancher until the Old French (don't ask me the different, I'm just reporting here.) Perhaps it continues back to the Vulgar Latin and Latin, but the staunch trail ends in Old France rather than heading to Latin. Staunch is a 15th century word, so it took an extra 100 years. The dictionary does tell us to find out more at stanch, but we've already been there.



So, conflation abounds. (We'll get to conflate in another post.)

Does the definition help? The first definition for stanch is "to stop the flowing of". I agree that this is the most common use of the word, and it seems wed to bleeding more so than any other flow. "Stanch the flow of the bleeding" is the use I've encountered most often. It has two other definitions, one of which is archaic, so why bother? The other is to stop a course of something like a crime wave. Since a crime wave isn't technically a flow, even though it sounds like it, you have to have a secondary definition. And a secondary definition to that one (2b if you're keeping track) is to make watertight or stop up. I don't know why that's 2b rather than 1b, but there you go. One clue to different usage is that it's a verb transitive. (Whatever that is.)

Staunch, on the other hand, is an adjective. (I know what an adjective is.) It's first meaning is watertight or sound. So once a leak has been stanched with a patch it is a staunch patch. But this definition, while listed first, is not the more common use I've encountered. It's the second one that I'm familiar with: steadfast in loyalty or principle. Now THAT's a great thing to be. Beats a good patch any day in my book (soon to be published by Arryoo, Kidding.)

Two very different meanings, to stop the flow or to be loyal and steadfast. But that's where we've come. The good news is that you needn't worry about which spelling to use for both words, if you follow my dictionary. But I'm going to be staunch in my usage and use stanch only for stopping the flow of something.