Mainstay
nounA person or thing on which something else chiefly depends or relies.
How to spell mainstay
8 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce mainstay
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does mainstay mean?
- nounA person or thing on which something else chiefly depends or relies.
Mainstay in a sentence
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Tourism is the economic mainstay of the coastal town.
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His steady salary was the mainstay of the household budget.
Where does mainstay come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a native English compound built from two old Germanic pieces. The first part, 'main', goes back to Old English 'mægen', meaning 'strength' or 'power', and came to mean 'chief' or 'principal'. The second part, 'stay', comes from Old English 'stæg', a nautical term for a strong rope or cable that braces a mast. A ship's 'mainstay' was literally the heavy line running forward from the head of the mainmast to hold it firm, so the whole word named the single support that kept the most important mast standing. By the 1700s sailors and writers had stretched it into a figurative sense: any person or thing that holds everything else up. The spelling stays transparent because both halves survive as ordinary modern words, which is a useful reminder that there is no hidden letter to forget.
How the word is built
- main (chief, principal)
- stay (a supporting rope or prop)
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