# Statary

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Not to be confused with [Statuary](/source/Statuary) or [Statutory](/source/Statutory).

**Statary** is a term currently applied in fields such as [ecology](/source/Ecology), [ethology](/source/Ethology), [psychology](/source/Psychology). In modern use it contrasts on the one hand with such concepts as *migratory*, *nomadic*, or *shifting*, and on the other with *static* or *immobile*. The word also is of historical interest in its change of meaning as its usage changed.

## Current usage

In current usage in fields such as biology, **[statary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/statary)** commonly means *in a particular location or state, **but not rigidly so***. [Army ant](/source/Army_ant) colonies for example are said to be in a *statary phase* when they occupy one bivouac for an extended period instead of just overnight. This is as opposed to a *nomadic phase*, in which they travel and forage practically daily. This does not mean that ant colonies in a statary phase do not move nor even that they do not forage while statary; they often do both, sometimes daily. Correspondingly a colony in a nomadic phase does not travel without rest; it bivouacs for the night. The significance of the terms is that the colonies' behaviour patterns differ radically according to their activity phase; one pattern favours maintaining a persistent presence where brood is being raised, whereas the other favours continual nomadic wandering into new foraging grounds.[1][2] Such phases have raised interest in studies in aspects of comparative psychology[3] and evolution.[4]

The term *statary* also applies in contexts other than ants or colonial organisms. Swarm-forming species of [locusts](/source/Locust) go beyond having statary and nomadic phases of behaviour; their growing [nymphs](/source/Nymph_(biology)) actually develop into different adult morphologies, depending on whether the conditions during their growth favour swarming or not. Locusts that adopt the swarming morphology are said to be the migratory [morphs](/source/Polymorphism_(biology)), while the rest are called statary morphs.[5] Effectively similar morphs occur in some other insect species, such as [army worm](/source/Fall_armyworm).[6]

In some technical fields *statary* need not refer literally to location or motion, but refer figuratively to their having particular characteristic but non-rigid attributes, such as atmospheric pressure. The following section instances examples of such senses occurring in the history of the term.

## Historical usage

**Statary**, from the Latin root *statarius*, meaning "standing fast", first came into prominent use in the English language in *Positions*, the work of [Richard Mulcaster](/source/Richard_Mulcaster) in the sixteenth century.[7] He spoke of *statarie substance* much as, in contemporary English, one might speak of [fixed assets](/source/Fixed_asset) or fixed property: "...either rich or poore : landed or unlanded, which is either the having or wanting of the most **statarie** substance." It is unclear whether he coined the English version of the word.

[Samuel Collins](/source/Samuel_Collins_(theologian)) also used the word "statary" in the slightly different sense of "ordinary" or "normal" in his 1617 defence of the Bishop of Elie, [Lancelot Andrewes](/source/Lancelot_Andrewes): "What is this [in comparison], ... not ... to their stately, but even statarie and ordinarie supremacie in the Church?".

In his *Pseudodoxia Epidemica*[8] Sir [Thomas Browne](/source/Thomas_Browne) used the word in at least two senses; firstly he used it as meaning *fixed* or *regular*, as in "...perturbed the observation of festivities and ***statary*** solemnities..." secondly he used it in contrast to *anniversary* (by which he meant "annual" or "seasonal") as in: "...we might expect a regularity in the winds; whereof though some be statary, some anniversary, and the rest do tend to determine points of heaven, yet do the blasts and undulary breaths thereof maintain no certainty in their course..." In this passage he explicitly does not assert the self-contradiction that winds might be static, but rather that they are unceasing, though variable. In this sense Browne's usage is consistent with the modern technical application.

The word *statary* appeared in sundry works after Browne's time, for example in the [Literary Gazette](/source/Literary_Gazette) in the *Meteorological Journal*, the word was used in reference to winds and barometric readings in much the same sense as that in which Browne had referred to statary winds.[9]

[Lancelot Addison](/source/Lancelot_Addison) referred to "statary prayers" in his account of his seven years in West Barbary, published in 1671. However, the word never seems to have come into common use, though it did appear in various dictionaries, such as [Samuel Johnson](/source/Samuel_Johnson)'s 1755 [Dictionary of the English Language](/source/A_Dictionary_of_the_English_Language). Such entries did not generally refer to any distinction between the various senses, and in fact some used words such as "stationary" in their definitions, apparently feeling no need for a separate term for the concept of something that has a non-rigid general location around specific coordinates. Accordingly the word was marked as obsolete by the compilers of the [Oxford English Dictionary](/source/Oxford_English_Dictionary) published in the late 19th to early 20th century,[7] and [Webster's Dictionary](/source/Webster's_Dictionary) did likewise in the 1913 unabridged edition.[10] The [Shorter Oxford English Dictionary](/source/Shorter_Oxford_English_Dictionary) in turn omitted the entry altogether.[11] If it had not been resurrected in the role of a technical term, the word *statary* probably would have disappeared from the language by now. In the sense of "rigidly stationary" it patently is redundant, but in the sense of loosely remaining at particular coordinates, it fills a need in certain fields such as in biology and climatology.

A related sense appeared in the 1623 translation of [Xenophon](/source/Xenophon) by John Bingham.[12] As applied to soldiers, statary means: equipped for stationary combat as opposed to [skirmishing](/source/Skirmisher).[7]

Eventually, about the early 1930s, the word began to reappear in articles and textbooks, particularly on biological topics. For example, it was used in a prominent textbook of the day,[1] [Norman Maier](/source/Norman_Maier) and associates were applying the concept to ant behaviour; it seems that [T. C. Schneirla](/source/Myrmecology) had elected to use the term in 1932. It had proved useful, and by the end of the 20th century the word was in fairly common use, as can be seen from [Google Ngram Viewer](/source/Google_Ngram_Viewer).

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-MSPP_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-MSPP_1-1) Maier, Norman Raymond Frederick; Schneirla, Théodore Christian. Principles of animal psychology. McGraw-Hill 1935

1. **[^](#cite_ref-AAGWH_2-0)** Gotwald, William H. Army Ants: The Biology of Social Predation. Publisher: Cornell University Press 1995. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0801426339](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0801426339)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Oyama, Susan; Griffths, Paul E.; Gray, Russell D. (editors) Cycles of Contingency: Developmental Systems and Evolution. 2001 [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-262-15053-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-262-15053-0)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Reeson, A. F.; Wilson, K.; Gunn, A.; Hails, R. S.; Goulson, D. Baculovirus resistance in the noctuid Spodoptera exempta is phenotypically plastic and responds to population density. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1998.0503 Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 22 September 1998 vol. 265 no. 1407 1787-1791

1. **[^](#cite_ref-MJWEDPE_5-0)** West-Eberhard, Mary Jane. Developmental Plasticity and Evolution. Publisher: Oxford University Press 2003. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0195122350](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0195122350)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-LIR_6-0)** Leather, Hardie, Jim. Insect Reproduction. Publisher: CRC Press 1995. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0849366956](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0849366956)

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-OEDJHM_7-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-OEDJHM_7-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-OEDJHM_7-2) Murray, J.A.H. The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (2 vols). Publisher: Oxford University Press. 1971. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0198611172](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0198611172)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Browne, Thomas, Sir, (ed. Wilkin, Simon). The works of Sir Thomas Browne Vol 2. Pub. London : G. Bell. 1888) [Download from: [https://archive.org/details/worksofsirthomas02brow](https://archive.org/details/worksofsirthomas02brow)]

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** William Jerdan, Lovell Augustus Reeve et al (eds) The Literary gazette: A weekly journal of literature, science, and the fine arts, Volume 5 (Google eBook) 1821, Meteorological Journal, pp. 527, 752

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Webster, Noah. Webster's revised unabridged dictionary of the English language. Publisher: Merriam 1913

1. **[^](#cite_ref-isbn0-19-861271-0_11-0)** Brown, Lesley (1993). [*The New shorter Oxford English dictionary on historical principles*](https://archive.org/details/newshorteroxford00lesl). Oxford [Eng.]: Clarendon. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-19-861271-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-19-861271-0).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** Xenophon, (tr. Bingham, John). The Historie of Xenophon. 1623. Publ: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9789022107041](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9789022107041)

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