Etymology

upstairs

up·stairs
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Today it means: Located on a higher floor or level of a building. Full definition →

English stair ← Middle English steire ← Old English stǣġer
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The story

  1. Englishup-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*steygʰ-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*stéygʰeti
  4. Proto-Germanic*stīganą
  5. Proto-Germanic*staigijaną
  6. Proto-Germanic*staigraz
  7. Proto-Germanic*staigriz
  8. Proto-West Germanic*staigri
  9. Old Englishstǣġer
  10. Middle Englishsteire
  11. Englishstair
  12. English todayupstairs

From up- + stair + -s.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.