Now local. Forms: 1 stæþ (dat. staþe, stæþe), 2 steþ, 3 staþe, 5–8 (9 Dicts.) stathe, 6 stath, 7 stayth, 8 steath(e, 6–9 staith, 6– staithe; also 9 dial. steeth, stay, etc.: see Eng. Dial. Dict. [In sense 1, repr. OE. stæþ neut. (? once masc.) = OS. stađ bank, shore, OHG. stad masc., neut. (MHG. stat, inflected stad-, mod.G. dial. staa), Goth. staþa dat. (masc. or neut.):—OTeut. *staþo- f. *sta-: see STAND v. In senses 2 and 3, which are not evidenced in OE. and are current only in districts where Scandinavian influence is strong, the word prob. represents (or has coalesced with the cognate ON. stǫð fem. (:—*staþwō) landing-stage (Norw. stød). Cf. also OHG. stado wk. masc. (MHG. stade, mod.G. dial. staden) and MHG. gistat neut. (mod.G. gestade) landing-place.]
† 1. The land bordering on water, a bank, shore.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., I. i. § 22. Of ðæm mere ðe Truso standeð in staðe.
O. E. Chron. (Parker MS.), an. 894. Æt Butting tune on Sæferne staþe.
a. 1000. Riddles, iii. 6 (Gr.). Streamas staþu beatað. Ibid., xxiii. 19. Brohte hwæþre beornas ofer burnan & hyra bloncan mid from stæðe heaum.
c. 1050. Suppl. Ælfric’s Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 177. Ripa, stæþ. [11[?] Ibid., 546 steþ.]
c. 1205. Lay., 7. He wonede at Ernleȝe … vppen Seuarne staþe.
2. A landing-stage, wharf; esp. a waterside depôt for coals brought from the collieries for shipment, furnished with staging and shoots for loading vessels.
1338. Orig. Chartulary of Tinmouth Monastery, 172, in Brand, Hist. Newcastle (1789), II. 255. Domus quam predictus prior et suus conventus … habent in predicta villa Novi Castri super le Stathes.
c. 1390. in Gross, Gild Merch., II. 169. [Lynn Regis] Unam communem placeam vocatam le commen stathe cum pertinenciis.
1420. Eng. Misc. (Surtees), 17. We, serchours of the masons and wryghtes of the cite of York … awarde and deme yt a lyne be drawn straight fra ye corner of ye stathe of ye chauntery … un to ye nexte corner of ye stathe of ye common place.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 473/1. Stathe, waterys syde, stacio.
1519. in Archæologia, XXV. 418. For caryeng of ye same ij cads [of Red Heryngs] to ye Common Stathe, ij d.
1653. Lilburn Tryed & Cast, 4. [He] sold a thousand pounds worth of Coales that were upon the Staithes.
1667. Primatt, City & C. Build., 26. You may consider what Stayths or Wharffs there be upon the River.
1708. J. C., Compl. Collier (1845), 49. The Rivers are not Navigable for Ships, so high as they Keys or Coal-Steaths.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Tale of Tyne, i. 1. Train after train of coal-waggons slid by on the rail-road from the pit to the staithe.
1862. Smiles, Engineers, III. 11. Arrived at the staiths, the waggons are emptied at once into the ships waiting alongside for cargo.
1905. Times, 4 March, 9/6. At midnight last night the River Tyne Commissioners’ new staithes … were totally destroyed by fire.
3. An embankment.
1698. De la Pryme, Diary (Surtees), 185. Their tyde … is fenced out with huge stathes, for if all the water might be suffered to come in that would, it would … dround … the whole Levels.
1839. Stonehouse, Axholme, 52. The fertility of the soil … would induce the inhabitants … by means of staiths and embankments, to reclaim the land thus formed.
1876. Whitby Gloss., s.v. Steeath, Staithes, masonry to prevent the ground as a foundation from being washed away.
