Two Words Spelled Staple, and Neither Is Related
A staple fastens paper. Another staple is a basic food or main product, and the two words come from different languages entirely.
A staple is a small metal fastener, and also a basic commodity like rice or wheat. These are two different words. The fastener is Old English *stapol*, a post or pillar, which came to mean a U-shaped piece of metal. The commodity is Middle Dutch *stapel*, a warehouse or market town where a region's main product was traded.
- A metal fastener. *A box of staples.*
- A basic food. *Rice is the staple there.*
- A main product. *Wool was the staple of the economy.*
- A regular feature. *A staple of Sunday television.*
- Verb, to fasten. *Staple the pages together.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | staple | One staple. |
| Plural | staples | Kitchen staples. |
| Verb | staple | Staple it shut. |
| Agent | stapler | A jammed stapler. |
| Adjective | staple | Staple crops. |
- The stapler is out of staples.The fastener.
- Cassava is a staple across much of the tropics.Food.
- The joke has become a staple of his act.Figurative.
Staple foods around the world
- Rice — the staple for roughly half the world's population
- Wheat — the base of bread, pasta and noodles across Eurasia
- Maize — central to the Americas and much of Africa
- Cassava — a root crop feeding hundreds of millions in the tropics
- Potato — a late arrival in Europe that reshaped its diet
The fastener is Old English *stapol*, a post. The commodity sense is Middle Dutch *stapel*, a market or storehouse, borrowed in the 1300s when English wool was traded through designated staple towns.
Are the two staples related?
No. One is Old English for a post, the other Middle Dutch for a market. They simply ended up with the same spelling.
What was a staple town?
A town granted the exclusive right to trade a particular commodity, especially wool in medieval England.