Stockpilings

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A reserve of collected items or materials set aside for future necessities or emergencies
2. An aggregation of supplies or resources kept in storage to meet anticipated future requirements
3. The act of gathering and storing goods or materials to ensure availability when needed

Etymology: "Stock" once meant a tree trunk or stump, and that sense survives in words like "rootstock." Its later sense of a supply laid up for use grew from the idea of a base from which things accumulate. "Pile" comes from Latin "pila," a pillar or pier, passing through Old French into English, where it came to mean a heap. The compound joins these two parts, and the act it names is simply building a reserve by stacking supplies up for later use. Its history offers no single coiner or famous episode, so the parts themselves tell the story.

Synonyms: reserves, supplies, hoards