stager
(ˈsteɪdʒə(r))
[f. stage n. + -er1.
It is not wholly impossible that in the expression old stager (sense 1 below) the word may be ad. OF. estagier an inhabitant, resident (f. estage stage n.), or med.L. stagiārius (see stagiary1) which is used in English monastic records (e.g. Cust. St. Augustine's, Canterbury, Henry Bradshaw Soc. Publ. XXIII) for an aged monk who was lodged permanently in the infirmary. Derivation from stage n. is, however, more probable, but the precise notion seems difficult to determine. The usual explanation that the theatrical stage is alluded to (‘one who has been long on the stage of life’) finds no support in the 16th and 17th c. examples; the primary sense may be that indicated in the definition of sense 2, but this is supported only by a single quotation.]
1. a. old stager: one who has become graduated or qualified by long experience; one who has been long employed in an office, a profession, course of life, etc.; a veteran, an old hand. Also occas. of animals.
| 1570 Foxe A. & M. III. 1756/1 [They] betooke them to theyr legges..resembling in some part a spectacle not much vnlike to the old stagers of Oxford, worse feared then hurt, when as the Church there was noysed to be on fier. 1577 Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. 181 They..doo..disdayne y⊇ gouernment..of the old Bee..when the swarmes be great and lusty, and that the old stagers [orig. L. veteres] are disposed to send abroade their Colonies. 1648 Heylin Relat. & Observ. i. 10 It was worth observing to see how officiously some of the old Stagers took leave of the Publique Purse, before it came into Hucksters hands. 1665 M. Nedham Med. Medicinæ 284 The next Digestion..the old Stagers will needs have to be in the Veines of the Mesenterie. 1669 Hist. Pope's Nephews ii. (1673) 135 'Tis a tedious thing to Princes Ministers, who are old Stagers in Councils and Affairs, to have to do with raw, unexperienced Persons. a 1734 North Life Ld. Keeper Guilford (1742) 146 Some of the old Stagers of his Party told him plainly, he might take his Ease. 1737 Bracken Farriery Impr. (1756) I. 17 A young Horse, though he be more subject to Diseases than an old hardened Stager. 1748 Chesterfield Lett. clxxii. (1792) II. 137 But here let me, as an old stager upon the theatre of the world, suggest one consideration to you. 1786–89 Bentham Princ. Internat. Law Wks. 1843 II. 549 True—but there are young beginners as well as old stagers. 1815 Scott Guy M. xxxv, You never come down to see your old acquaintance..you would find most of the old stagers still stationary there. 1833 Marryat P. Simple xxx, I'm an old stager in the West Indies, and I'll let you into a secret. 1841 Prescott in Life Longfellow (1891) I. 411, I do not know that an old stager in authorship, like you, cares for anybody's opinion. 1895 Scully Kafir Stories 169 My horse was a steady old stager, not at all given to shying. |
b. Hence stager simply, and with other adjs., as cunning, sly. Also (rarely) young stager, one of small experience, a beginner.
| 1664 Butler Hud. ii. i. 297 Quoth She, I've heard old cunning Stagers Say, Fools for Arguments use wagers. 1687 Dryden Hind & P. iii. 497 'Tis true, some stagers of the wiser sort Made all these idle wonderments their sport. 1692 L'Estrange Fables lxxxi. 79 At last, One Experienced Stager [a mouse] that had Baffled Twenty Traps and Tricks Before, Discover'd the Plot. 1709 Swift Project Adv. Relig. Misc. (1711) 190 The pert Pragmatical Demeanor of several young Stagers in Divinity. 1836 J. Struthers Dychmont iv. Poet. Wks. (1850) II. 101 Where's the sly stager Gizzy Rags? |
† 2. One who has attained a definite stage or rank in his profession. Obs. rare.
| 1583 Execution for Treason 4 And them to send..under secret maskes,..with titles of Seminaries for some of the meaner sort, and of Iesuites for the stagers and ranker sort. |
3. A stage-player. Obs. exc. arch.
| 1580 2nd & 3rd Blast Plays & Theatres 111 As for those stagers..are they not commonlie such kind of men in their conuersation, as they are in profession? 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster i. ii, What? shall I haue my son a Stager now? an Enghle for Players? a Gull? a Rooke? a Shot-clog? Ibid. iii. iv, Suffer him not to droop, in prospect of a Player, a Rogue, a Stager. 1602 Dekker Satirom. D 1 b, Thou borrowedst a gowne of Roscius the Stager,..and sentst it home lowsie. 1630 B. Jonson New Inn (1631) H 2 (Just Indign. Author), And safe in your stage-clothes, Dare quit, vpon your oathes, The stagers, and the stage-wrights too (your peeres) Of larding your large eares. 1873 Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country 1264 Sganarelle,..That stager in the saint's correct costume. |
† 4. a. One who runs a stage or course. Obs.
| 1638 R. Brathwait Barnabee's Jrnl. iii. T 4, Thence to Towlerton, where those Stagers [Stadiodromi] Or Horse⁓coursers run for wagers. 1687 Norris Misc. 138 The Antient Stager of the Day Has run his minutes out, and number'd all his way. |
b. A stage-coach or stage-coach horse.
| 1852 Tait's Mag. XIX. 656 The shock was so violent that the crazy stager, its conductor, its two horses and a single passenger rolled pell-mell in the..road. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Stager, a horse running in a stage carriage. |
5. One who erects scaffolding in a shipyard. Cf. stage n. 4 e.
| 1927 Dict. Occupational Terms §668 Stager,..erects staging on which workmen stand to work. 1974 Socialist Worker 26 Oct. 16/5 Management agreed that stagers in the Society of Boilermakers be made a skilled section with parity with packers and sheeters. |
Hence † ˈstageress Obs. rare—1, a play-actress.
| 1633 Prynne Histrio-m. 649 Hee who hath married a strumpet, or a woman-actor or stageresse, cannot be an Elder, a Bishop, or Deacon. |