The story
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*staþą
- Old English · inherited fromsteþ
- Middle English · inherited fromstathe
- English todaystathe
From Middle English stathe, from Old English steþ, stæþ (“bank, shore”), from Proto-Germanic *staþą, *staþaz, *staþwō (“bank, shore”). Cognate with Old Frisian sted (“bank, shore”), Middle High German stat (“bank, shore”) (German Gestade), dialectal Norwegian stad (“riverbank”), Icelandic stöð (“a harbour, roadstead, port, landing”); akin to Old English stede (“place”). More at stead.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.