stake [OE] In the sense ‘a thick pointed stick driven into the ground’, stake is related to *stick. The gambling sense [LME] might relate to the idea of an object being placed as a wager on a post or stake, though there is no definite evidence of the existence of this custom. If you stake a claim you declare or assert your right to something. This expression originated in America at the time of the California gold rush of 1849. Prospectors would register their claim to a particular plot of land by marking out the boundary with wooden stakes that they drove into the ground, thus ‘staking a claim’. Also American in origin is the phrase pull up stakes [E19th], meaning ‘to move or go to live elsewhere’. The stakes being referred to here are pegs or posts for securing a tent or making a fence around a temporary settlement.