Other forms: stables
A stable is the building where horses are kept. Muck out the stable, a racing stable, back to the stables.
The same spelling is an entirely different word meaning firm and not likely to change: a stable ladder, a stable government, the patient is stable. That second one is the commoner word by far and the one that matters in news and medicine — stable in a hospital bulletin means not getting worse, which is a lower bar than it sounds. Note that stability is the noun for the adjective, and there is no noun form of the horse word beyond stables. Under the same roof is where the connection lies: both come from standing.
1nounstableA building where horses are kept.
“The horses are brought into the stable at dusk.”
2adjectivefirmFirm and unlikely to change or fall.
“The ladder is stable if you keep it on the flat.”
3adjectivepatientOf a patient, not getting worse.
“She is in a stable condition.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
stable is a building, or a quality of steadiness.
Latin stabulum meant a standing place, from stare, to stand — and stabilis, the adjective, meant able to stand. So the horse building and the quality of steadiness are the same root arriving twice, one as a place to stand and one as the ability to.
Proto-Indo-European
*steh₂-
Middle English
stable
English, today
stable
From Middle English stable. From Middle English stable, borrowed from Anglo-Norman estable, from Latin stabulum.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA