Stampede

How to spell stampede

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce stampede

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does stampede mean?

1. nounA sudden, headlong rush of frightened or excited animals or people.
2. verbTo rush wildly in a sudden panic, or to cause a crowd or herd to do so.

Stampede in a sentence

• noun

  The fire alarm triggered a stampede toward the exits.

• verb

  The cattle began to stampede across the open plain.

• noun

  The herd broke into a stampede at the sound of thunder.

• verb

  The managers tried not to stampede staff into a hasty decision.

Where does stampede come from?

Language of origin: Spanish

This word came into English from the Spanish estampida, which meant a crash, an uproar, or a sudden panic, and which itself was built on the verb estampar, 'to stamp' or 'to press down'. That Spanish verb traces back through Old Provencal to a Germanic root for stamping the feet, the same family that gives English its own ordinary word 'stamp'. The term entered American English in the early nineteenth century out of the cattle-ranching culture of the Spanish-speaking Southwest, where it described a herd of cattle or horses bolting in sudden terror. From those ranch origins it spread into general use for any wild, headlong rush of people or animals, and later took on the figurative sense of a sudden mass movement of opinion. The spelling can trip writers because the unstressed first vowel sounds like a schwa, yet it is plainly 'stamp' plus an '-ede' ending borrowed straight from the Spanish.

How the word is built

• stamp (to bring the foot down heavily)
• -ede (noun suffix, via Spanish estampida)