staid

Etymology

From an obsolete spelling of stayed, the past participle of stay, used as an adjective.

adj

1. Not capricious or impulsive; sedate, serious, sober.
   The hours of study, the hours of recreation, the sports, the pastimes, the casualties, which in the staider years of life pass without note or comment, alike are wrapped and muffled in the one roseate haze. 1835, [Louisa Sidney Stanhope], chapter III, in Sydney Beresford. A Tale of the Day. … In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper,[…], →OCLC, pages 70–71
   As for Peter, he was the happiest of the happy, and had sung and whistled so joyously while skating that the staidest passers-by had smiled as they listened. 1866, M[ary] E[lizabeth] Dodge [i.e., Mary Mapes Dodge], “A Catastrophe”, in Hans Brinker; or, The Silver Skates. A Story of Life in Holland, New York, N.Y.: James O’Kane,[…], →OCLC, page 97
   I was just thinking that it's sure been a long time since you've pulled one of your great practical jokes. You've gotten downright boring lately, Cody. Staid, even. 1996, Gina Ferris Wilkins, chapter 1, in Cody’s Fiancée (Silhouette Special Edition; 1006), New York, N.Y.: Silhouette; republished Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin, 2013
   Producers of the show hoped the presence of mouthy first-time host Chris Rock might boost ratings, particularly among younger viewers who may view the Oscars as too staid an affair. 28 February 2005, “[Cate] Blanchett wins supporting actress Oscar”, in China Daily, New York, N.Y.: China Daily Distribution Corp., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2008-10-20
   Meetings between Pakistani and American leaders are traditionally staid and predictable, although some Pakistanis are fond of recalling an apocryphal 1963 exchange between John F. Kennedy and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto – father of slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, to whom [Asif Ali] Zardari was married. Impressed by the then Foreign Minister, who would become Prime Minister before being deposed by a U.S.-backed military dictator in 1977 and later executed, Kennedy is alleged to have said, "If you were an American, you would be in my Cabinet." Bhutto is alleged to have answered, "Be careful, Mr. President. If I were an American, you would be in my Cabinet." 26 September 2008, Omar Waraich, “How Sarah Palin Rallied Pakistan’s Feminists”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-05-17
   February 9 2021, “he Tom Hanks's made five movies with Spielberg and several with both Ron Howard and Robert Zemeckis, all admirable but often staid filmmakers with a professed love of the Capra-esque.”, in BBC:
2. (rare) Always fixed in the same location; stationary.
   [I]n a common sailor's life sleep is not a regular thing as we have it on shore, and perhaps that staid glazy and sedate-looking eye, which a hard-worked seaman usually has, is really caused by broken slumber. He is never completely awake, but he is never entirely asleep. 1867, John MacGregor, chapter II, in The Voyage Alone in the Yawl “Rob Roy,” from London to Paris, and back by Havre, the Isle of Wight, South Coast, &c., London: Sampson Low, Son, and Marston,[…], →OCLC, page 37

verb

1. Obsolete spelling of stayed