- stamina (n.)
- 1670s, "rudiments or original elements of something," from Latin stamina "threads," plural of stamen (genitive staminis) "thread, warp" (see stamen). Sense of "power to resist or recover, strength, endurance" first recorded 1726 (originally plural), from earlier meaning "congenital vital capacities of a person or animal," also in part from Latin application to the threads spun by the Fates to determine the length and course of one's life, and partly from a figurative use of Latin stamen "the warp (of cloth)" on the notion of the warp as the "foundation" of a fabric.