Meaning

verb urinate, of cattle and horses

adjective lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration from age

adjective lacking originality or spontaneity; no longer new

originFrom Middle English stale, from Old English stalu, from Proto-Germanic *stal-; compare English stell from this root. The development was paralleled by the ablaut which became English steal, from Middle English stele, from Old English stela, from Proto-Germanic *stel-. Both are from the same Proto-Indo-European root *stel-, *stol- (“to place, establish”), whence also Ancient Greek στελεός…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0