Hundreds of years ago, when people wrote about things that stayed the same, they sometimes wrote "staid" instead of "stayed."
And that first spelling, S-T-A-I-D, became its own word meaning "staying the same: fixed in place, never changing." Over time, the word "staid" came to mean "staying the same in a boring, unexciting way," and that's how we use it today. In other words, staid people and things are calm and steady, but also boring and serious.
We talk about staid clothing: boring, old-fashioned clothing that isn't cute, isn't cool, and isn't exciting. Here are some staid dresses, and some staid shoes to go with them. Ho-hum.
We also talk about staid people: people who are dull and uninteresting who never smile, never laugh, or hardly ever do anything. Here's a staid painting of two staid farmers. Check out their staid faces. Would you like to spend a staid evening sitting around with them, talking about the weather? No? Me, neither.
