stanch
1 of 2verb
transitive verb
stanch
2 of 2adjective
less common spelling of staunch entry 2
Did you know?
The verb stanch has a lot in common with the adjective staunch, meaning "steadfast." Not only do both words derive from the Anglo-French word estancher (which has the same meaning as stanch), but the spelling "s-t-a-n-c-h" is sometimes used for the adjective, and the spelling "s-t-a-u-n-c-h" is sometimes used for the verb. Although both spelling variants have been in reputable use for centuries and both are perfectly standard for either the verb or adjective, stanch is the form used most often for the verb and staunch is the most common variant for the adjective.
Did you know?
Staunch and Stanch
Both stanch and staunch come from the Anglo-French estancher, meaning “to check or stop the flowing of.” Both have been in use for many hundreds of years. And most dictionaries will list them as having the exact same meaning. They are, in fact, variants of each other. But there's a catch: staunch is more commonly used as an adjective (it has several meanings in this role, including “steadfast in loyalty or principle” and "substantial"), and stanch is more commonly used as a verb (common meanings are "to check or stop the flowing of" and "to stop or check in its course"). Here are example of each in typical use:
a staunch supporter/advocate
staunch resistance/allegiance
to stanch the flow/bleeding
stanching the loss of jobs/revenue
Note that saying that something is more commonly used in some way does not necessarily mean that people who choose to use it in the less common way are wrong. There is a considerable body of evidence, from reputable sources, of staunch and stanch being used in their less common roles.
Some people will tell you that you should always keep these words apart, and if you’d like to do this you may find the following sentence of some assistance in helping you to remember the difference: "A staunch friend would help you stanch a bleeding thumb."
Alternatively, you may rely on the time-honored method of people-who-remember-things-poorly and use this limerick:
Tho’ neither stanch nor staunch must conform
To rigid semantical norm
Some editors will blanch,
When encountering stanch
If it’s used in adjective form
Example Sentences
Kirsten Chuba, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 Aug. 2022 The country’s response was to print more money and borrow more from abroad, to stanch the economic bleeding. Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, 27 July 2022 The country’s response was to print more money and borrow more from abroad, to stanch the economic bleeding. New York Times, 27 July 2022 Another boy used a jacket to stanch the bleeding from a girl’s chest. Terry Spencer, BostonGlobe.com, 20 July 2022 Another boy used a jacket to stanch the bleeding from a girl's chest. CBS News, 20 July 2022 Oregon Democrats have noticed a change in Schrader’s pitch, evidently in an effort to stanch any more bleeding of local support. Daniel Strauss, The New Republic, 11 May 2022 In theory, the Bank of Japan could stanch the yen’s devaluation by raising interest rates. New York Times, 10 May 2022 Coinbase sought to stanch any concerns in a blog post last week. Paul Vigna, WSJ, 29 July 2022 See More Word History
Verb
Middle English staunchen, stanchen, staungen (transitive) "to stop (blood from flowing), alleviate (pain, distress), put out (fire), quell, overcome," (intransitive) "(of blood, diarrhea) to stop flowing, (of a wound) stop bleeding, (of water) stand still, stop flowing," borrowed from Anglo-French estancher, estauncher (also continental Old & Middle French), probably going back to Vulgar Latin *stanticāre "to stop (the flow of a liquid), stop, check, hinder" from stant-, stans, present participle of stāre "to stand" + -icāre, verb formative — more at stand entry 1
Note: As with other loans from Anglo-French having a tautosyllabic nasal consonant before a dental, there was variation between a diphthong and a simple vowel in the Middle English outcome; note staunch entry 1 from the same etymon, and compare branch entry 1, haunch, launch entry 1. — The Romance etymon behind estancher (Modern French étancher "to stanch, quench, stop up") is widely attested and can be compared with similar sense in Old Occitan, Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese estancar, along with Italian stancare "to tire," stanco "tired," mano stanca (Dante) "left hand," Romanian stânc "left(-handed)." Alongside these are a set of words without initial (e)s-, which may have been taken as a prefix: Catalan tancar "to close," Old Occitan tancar "to bar (a door)," and Occitan (Provence) tancá "to stop (a wheel with a wedge)"; compare with pétanque. The etymology tracing these to Vulgar Latin *stanticāre, a verbalization of Latin aqua stans "standing water," was apparently first suggested by G. Tillander (Remarques sur le Roman de Renart, Gothenburg, 1923, pp. 52-60). J. Coromines (Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico) objected strongly to this hypothesis, on the grounds that loss of the pretonic vowel would have resulted in *estanxar in Catalan and *estanchar in Occitan, and that in Italian the vowel would not have been lost at all. The rejoinder has been made that cases of later syncope in Italian can be found, and that there is variability in the timing of syncope in Occitan and Catalan.
Verb
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Medical Definition
stanch
transitive verb
stanch
verb
Synonyms & Similar Words
- repress
- squelch
- suppress
- impede
- turn back
- discontinue
- stem
- hinder
- obstruct
- choke off
- suspend
- stunt
- squash
- rein (in)
- cut off
- halt
- clog
- detain
- terminate
- still
- baffle
- dam
- end
- stop
- call
- snag
- blockade
- block
- balk
- bottleneck
- conclude
- hold back
- hold
- arrest
- check
- fetch up
- pull up
- stall
- stay
- draw up
- catch
- bring up
- hold up
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- continue
- keep (on)
- persist
- proceed
- follow through (with)
- keep up
- move
- wend
- advance
- impel
- march
- progress
- push
- propel
- run on
- spur
- fare
- goad
- stir
- actuate
- budge
- carry on
- drive
- go along