Meaning

noun (law) a right or legal share of something; a financial involvement with something

noun a pole or stake set up to mark something (as the start or end of a race track)

noun instrument of execution consisting of a vertical post that a victim is tied to for burning

originFrom Middle English stake, from Old English staca (“pin, tack, stake”), from Proto-West Germanic *stakō, from Proto-Germanic *stakô (“stake”), from Proto-Indo-European *stog-, *steg- (“stake”). Cognate with Scots stak, staik, Saterland Frisian Stak, West Frisian staak, Dutch staak, Low German Stake, Norwegian stake, Spanish estaca.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0