stasis means A slackening or arrest of the blood current, due not to a lessening of the heart’s beat, but to some abnormal resistance of the capillary walls. It carries an Arena rating of 1716, earned across 10 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, stasis ranks #39 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #769 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #813 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,300 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
stasis is pronounced /ˈsteɪsɪs/.
Why “stasis” is a great word
A condition or period of inactivity or equilibrium resulting from counterbalancing forces. From New Latin *stasis*, from Ancient Greek στάσις (*stásis*, 'a standing, position, or placing'), from the Proto-Indo-European root *steh₂- ('to stand'). Unlike 'stagnation,' which implies a fetid, unhealthy lack of flow, or 'strife,' which carries the word's original Greek weight of factional conflict, stasis is a tense, deliberate balance. It is the trembling stillness of a deer before flight, the arrested droplet clinging to a faucet's lip, and the suspended moment in a hospital corridor when a life hangs between one beat and the next—the body, like a sentinel, standing at the threshold of change.
Etymology
From New Latin stasis, from Ancient Greek στάσις (stásis). See the doublet stead.
noun
- A slackening or arrest of the blood current, due not to a lessening of the heart’s beat, but to some abnormal resistance of the capillary walls.
- Inactivity; a freezing, or state of motionlessness.e.g.“His company was sized for growth, not stasis.”
- A technology allowing something to be artificially frozen in time, so that it does not age or change.e.g.“I was in stasis for forty years before I woke up orbiting this poxy planet!”
- One of the sections of a cathisma or portion of the psalter.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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