Meaning

verb color with a liquid dye or tint

noun a soiled or discolored appearance

noun (microscopy) a dye or other coloring material that is used in microscopy to make structures visible

originFrom Middle English steinen, steynen (“to stain, colour, paint”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse steina (“to stain, colour, paint”), from steinn (“stone, mineral blue, colour, stain”), from Proto-Norse ᛊᛏᚨᛁᚾᚨᛉ (stainaʀ), from Proto-Germanic *stainaz (“stone”), from Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- (“to stiffen”). Cognate with Old English stān (“stone”). More at stone. Replaced native Middle…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0