n. [a common Teut. word; O. H. G. stahal], steel; sterkasta stáli, Karl. 285, Fms., x. 172, passim: phrases, sverfa til stáls, to file to the very steel, to fight to the last, vii. 244, Gullþ. 69.

2. plur., of weapons: er stálin mættusk. Art., Lex. Poët. passim.

3. a part of a ship, the beak; þeir höfðu raskótt fyrir stálinu, Fms. viii. 199; kjalar, stála, súða, Edda 66, Lex. Poët.

II. metaph., from steel wrapped in soft iron before being fused in the forge:—the inside of a hay-stack or rick (= staði); hann tók laust hey ór stálinu. Njarð. 378; ef maðr á korn falt í stáli eðr hey, N. G. L. ii. 111 (v.r. to staði), freq. in mod. usage.

2. an intercalary sentence in a verse, much used by the ancient poets, esp. in the metre dróttkvætt, Edda i. 618; thus in Haustl. 13 the words ‘sveipr varð í för’ is a stál. In the old poems of the metre dróttkvæð the strophes are interwoven with such intercalary sentences; in some editions these sentences are marked by [ ] or by ( ):—as a gramm. term, embolismus, köllum var þat gört á stál ef á meðal verðr hendinga, Skálda ii. 106.

COMPDS: stálbroddr, stálgaddr, stálgörr, stálhanzki, stálharðr, stálhattr, stálhjálmr, stálhúfa, stálnagli, stálpík, stálslá, stálsleginn, stálsorfinn.