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stance

 - 3 dictionary results

stance

  [stans] ,
–noun
1. the position or bearing of the body while standing: legs spread in a wide stance; the threatening stance of the bull.
2. a mental or emotional position adopted with respect to something: They assumed an increasingly hostile stance in their foreign policy.
3. Sports. the relative position of the feet, as in addressing a golf ball or in making a stroke.
Use stance in a Sentence
Origin:
1525–35; < OF estance (standing) position < VL *stantia, deriv. of L stant- (s. of stāns), prp. of stāre to stand
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.
Cite This Source Link To stance
stance   (stāns)   
n.  

  1. The attitude or position of a standing person or animal, especially the position assumed by an athlete preparatory to action. See Synonyms at posture.

  2. Mental posture; point of view: "Peru ... has also toughened its stance toward foreign investors" (Abraham F. Lowenthal).


[French, position, from Italian stanza, from Vulgar Latin *stantia, from Latin stāns, stant-, present participle of stāre, to stand; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

stance 
1532, "standing place, station," probably from M.Fr. stance "resting place, harbor," from It. stanza "stopping place, station," from V.L. *stantia "place, abode," from L. stans (gen. stantis), prp. of stare "to stand," from PIE base *sta- "to stand" (see stet). Sense of "position of the feet" (in golf, etc.) is first recorded 1897; fig. sense of "point of view" is recorded from 1956.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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