Other forms: stances
A stance is how a person stands, and what it shows. An open stance, a wide stance, change your stance.
In sport it is technical: a batter's stance, a boxer's stance, and changing it changes everything downstream. In body language it is read for confidence and intention. The figurative sense is a position taken on an issue: take a stance, a firm stance, soften their stance — which is now much the commoner use. Note that stance and stanza are the same word, one about standing and one about a room.
1nounstanceHow a person stands.
“The coach showed her how to widen her stance before hitting the ball.”
2nounpositionA position taken on an issue.
“The government has taken a tough stance on illegal parking.”
stance is a standing position.
Old French estance means a standing or a position, from Latin stare, to stand. The Italian stanza, a room, comes from the same word — a room is a place where you stand.
Proto-Indo-European
*steh₂- — to stand (up)
Latin
stō — to stand; to remain, stay
Vulgar Latin
*stantia
Italian
stanza — room, standing place; stanza
Old French
estance — predicament; situation; sojourn, stay
Middle English
staunce — place to stand; battle station; position; standing in society; circumstance, situation; stanchion
English, today
stance
From Middle English staunce (“place to stand; battle station; position; standing in society; circumstance, situation; stanchion”), from Old French estance (“predicament; situation; sojourn, stay”) (compare modern French stance (“stanza; position one stands in when golfing”)), from Italian stanza (“room, standing place; stanza”), from Vulgar Latin stantia, from Latin stō (“to stand; to remain, stay”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European steh₂- (“to stand (up)”). The word is cognate with Spanish estante (“shelf”) and a a doublet of stanza. The verb is derived from the noun. Compare typologically Czech postoj (“stance (the way of holding a body); stance (point of view)”) (cognate via PIE). Also see position, posture.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA