stem
English
editPronunciation
editEtymology 1
editFrom Middle English stem, stemme, stempne, stevin, from Old English stemn, from Proto-West Germanic *stamni, from Proto-Germanic *stamniz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand, stay”).
Noun
editstem (plural stems)
- The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.
- 1634, John Milton, “Arcades”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 55:
- Where ye may all that are of noble ſtemm / Approach, and kiſs her ſacred veſtures hemm.
- 1633, George Herbert, Church Monuments:
- While I do pray, learn here thy stem / And true descent.
- A branch of a family.
- 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:
- This is a stem / Of that victorious stock.
- An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
- 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC:
- Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years.
- (botany) The above-ground stalk (technically axis) of a vascular plant, and certain anatomically similar, below-ground organs such as rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, and corms.
- 1736, Sir Walter Raleigh, The History of the World in Five Books:
- After they are shot up thirty feet in length, they spread a very large top, having no bough nor twig in the trunk or the stem.
- A slender supporting member of an individual part of a plant such as a flower or a leaf; also, by analogy, the shaft of a feather.
- the stem of an apple or a cherry
- 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:
- Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
- A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon.
- (linguistics) The main part of an uninflected word to which affixes may be added to form inflections of the word. A stem often has a more fundamental root. Systematic conjugations and declensions derive from their stems.
- (slang) A person's leg.
- 2008, Lori Wilde, Rhonda Nelson, Cara Summers, August Harlequin Blaze:
- She was perfectly, fuckably proportioned everywhere else, both above and below her waist. A pocket-size Venus, with the longest stems he'd ever seen on someone so dang diminutive.
- (slang) The penis.
- 2005, Eric Bogosian, Wasted Beauty, page 135:
- Waves of ecstasy roll through him as the moustachioed Casanova slides his stem in and out of the spaced-out chick.
- (typography) A vertical stroke of a letter.
- (music) A vertical stroke marking the length of a note in written music.
- (music) A premixed portion of a track for use in audio mastering and remixing.
- 2019, Karl Pedersen, Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard, The Recording, Mixing, and Mastering Reference Handbook, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 268:
- Stem mastering processes a mix by breaking it down into several manageable pieces—that is, stereo stems. The stem approach allows the mastering engineer the opportunity to make larger or smaller changes to separate mix elements before the final compression and limiting are applied to the complete mix.
- (nautical) The vertical or nearly vertical forward extension of the keel, to which the forward ends of the planks or strakes are attached.
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
- Both we will walke vpon the loftie cliffes,
And Chriſtian Merchants that with Ruſſian ſtems
Plow vp huge furrowes in the Caſpian ſea,
Shall vaile to vs, as Lords of al the Lake.
- (cycling) A component on a bicycle that connects the handlebars to the bicycle fork.
- (anatomy) A part of an anatomic structure considered without its possible branches or ramifications.
- (slang) A crack pipe; or the long, hollow portion of a similar pipe (i.e. meth pipe) resembling a crack pipe.
- (chiefly British) A winder on a clock, watch, or similar mechanism.
Derived terms
edit- a-stem
- brain stem
- celestial stem
- consonant stem
- from stem to stern
- give the stem
- heavenly stem
- i-stem
- Mach stem
- oblique stem
- o-stem
- question stem
- stem-and-leaf
- stem and leaf
- stem cell
- stem-clasping
- stem duchy
- stem family
- stem for stem
- stem ginger
- stem group
- stemless
- stem-loop
- stem mammal
- stem mutation
- stem node
- stemplot
- stem siren
- stem stitch
- stem the rose
- stem the tide
- stem-winder
- straw stem
- the apple does not fall far from the stem
- unstemmed
- u-stem
- wire stem
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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References
edit“stem”, in Collins English Dictionary.
Verb
editstem (third-person singular simple present stems, present participle stemming, simple past and past participle stemmed)
- To remove the stem from.
- to stem cherries; to stem tobacco leaves
- To be caused or derived; to originate.
- The current crisis stems from the short-sighted politics of the previous government.
- 2023 June 2, H Conley, “Studies show top surgery is safe for fat patients, but some surgeons still mandate weight loss”, in STAT[1]:
- Weight stigma often stems from an idea that patients are at fault for their body size.
- To descend in a family line.
- To direct the stem (of a ship) against; to make headway against.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 41, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 199:
- Nor is the pre-eminent tremendousness of the great Sperm Whale anywhere more feelingly comprehended, than on board of those prows which stem him.
- (obsolete) To hit with the stem of a ship; to ram.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii:
- As when two warlike Brigandines at sea, / With murdrous weapons arm'd to cruell fight, / Doe meete together on the watry lea, / They stemme ech other with so fell despight, / That with the shocke of their owne heedlesse might, / Their wooden ribs are shaken nigh a sonder […]
- To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole.
Synonyms
editTranslations
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Etymology 2
editFrom Middle English stemmen, a borrowing from Old Norse stemma (“to stop, stem, dam”) (whence Danish stemme/stæmme (“to stem, dam up”)), from Proto-Germanic *stammijaną. Cognate with German stemmen, Middle Dutch stemmen, stempen. Compare stammer.
Verb
editstem (third-person singular simple present stems, present participle stemming, simple past and past participle stemmed)
- (transitive) To stop, hinder (for instance, a river or blood).
- to stem a tide
- 1636 (date written), John Denham, “The Destruction of Troy, an Essay upon the Second Book of Virgils Æneis”, in Poems and Translations, with The Sophy, 4th edition, London: […] [John Macock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1668, →OCLC:
- [They] stem the flood with their erected breasts.
- 1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC:
- Stemm'd the wild torrent of a barbarous age.
- (skiing) To move the feet apart and point the tips of the skis inward in order to slow down the speed or to facilitate a turn.
- In rock climbing, to use a stance with the feet spread apart, bracing them in opposite directions against the two walls of a chimney or dihedral.
Synonyms
edit- See also Thesaurus:hinder
Translations
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Etymology 3
editNoun
editstem (plural stems)
- Alternative form of steem
Etymology 4
editAcronym of science, technology, engineering, (and) mathematics.
Noun
editstem (plural stems)
- Alternative form of STEM
- 2015 May 29, BBC News, How do US black students perform at school?:
- Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields are a particular cause for concern because within them there are more pronounced stereotypes, extreme competitiveness and gender inequities regarding the abilities and competencies of black male and female students.
Further reading
edit- “stem”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “stem”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “stem”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Etymology 5
editNoun
editstem (plural stems)
Anagrams
editAfrikaans
editPronunciation
editEtymology 1
editFrom Dutch stem, from Middle Dutch stemme, from Old Dutch *stemma, from Proto-Germanic *stebnō, *stamnijō.
Noun
editstem (plural stemme)
- vote
- voice
- 1921, “Die Stem van Suid-Afrika”, C.J. Langenhoven (lyrics), M.L. de Villiers (music), South Africa:
- Ruis die stem van ons geliefde, van ons land Suid-Afrika.
- Rises the voice of our beloved, of our country South Africa.
Etymology 2
editVerb
editstem (present stem, present participle stemmende, past participle gestem)
- to vote
Dutch
editEtymology
editFrom Middle Dutch stemme, from Old Dutch *stemma, from Proto-West Germanic *stebnu, from Proto-Germanic *stebnō, *stamnijō. Under influence of Latin vox (“voice, word”), it acquired the now obsolete sense of “word”.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editstem f (plural stemmen, diminutive stemmetje n)
- voice, sound made by the mouth using airflow
- the ability to speak
- Zij is haar stem kwijt. ― She’s lost her voice.
- vote
- (obsolete) word
- (phonetics) voice, property formed by vibration of the vocal cords
Derived terms
editDescendants
edit- Afrikaans: stem
- Negerhollands: stem
- → Aukan: sitemu
- → Caribbean Javanese: setèm, nyetèm, nyetèmi
- → Indonesian: sêtèm
- → Indonesian: suara (semantic loan)
- → Papiamentu: stèm
- → Sranan Tongo: sten, stèm
- → Trió: sten
Verb
editstem
- inflection of stemmen:
Anagrams
editIndonesian
editEtymology
editFrom English stem, from Middle English stem, stemme, stempne, stevin, from Old English stemn, from Proto-Germanic *stamniz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand, stay”).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editstem (first-person possessive stemku, second-person possessive stemmu, third-person possessive stemnya)
- (nautical) stem: the vertical or nearly vertical forward extension of the keel, to which the forward ends of the planks or strakes are attached.
Further reading
edit- “stem” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.
Latin
editPronunciation
edit- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /stem/, [s̠t̪ɛ̃ˑ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /stem/, [st̪ɛm]
Verb
editstem
Norwegian Bokmål
editVerb
editstem
- imperative of stemme
Norwegian Nynorsk
editVerb
editstem
- imperative of stemme
Tok Pisin
editEtymology
editNoun
editstem
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɛm
- Rhymes:English/ɛm/1 syllable
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *steh₂-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Taxonomy
- en:Botany
- English terms with usage examples
- en:Linguistics
- English slang
- en:Typography
- en:Music
- en:Nautical
- en:Cycling
- en:Anatomy
- British English
- English verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English transitive verbs
- en:Skiing
- English blends
- en:Genitalia
- en:Plant anatomy
- Afrikaans terms with IPA pronunciation
- Afrikaans terms inherited from Dutch
- Afrikaans terms derived from Dutch
- Afrikaans terms inherited from Middle Dutch
- Afrikaans terms derived from Middle Dutch
- Afrikaans terms inherited from Old Dutch
- Afrikaans terms derived from Old Dutch
- Afrikaans terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Afrikaans terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Afrikaans lemmas
- Afrikaans nouns
- Afrikaans terms with quotations
- Afrikaans verbs
- Dutch terms inherited from Middle Dutch
- Dutch terms derived from Middle Dutch
- Dutch terms inherited from Old Dutch
- Dutch terms derived from Old Dutch
- Dutch terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Dutch terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Dutch terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Dutch terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio links
- Rhymes:Dutch/ɛm
- Rhymes:Dutch/ɛm/1 syllable
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -en
- Dutch feminine nouns
- Dutch terms with usage examples
- nl:Democracy
- Dutch terms with obsolete senses
- nl:Phonetics
- Dutch non-lemma forms
- Dutch verb forms
- Indonesian terms borrowed from English
- Indonesian terms derived from English
- Indonesian terms derived from Middle English
- Indonesian terms derived from Old English
- Indonesian terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Indonesian terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Indonesian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Indonesian lemmas
- Indonesian nouns
- Indonesian uncountable nouns
- id:Nautical
- Latin 1-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin verb forms
- Norwegian Bokmål non-lemma forms
- Norwegian Bokmål verb forms
- Norwegian Nynorsk non-lemma forms
- Norwegian Nynorsk verb forms
- Tok Pisin terms derived from English
- Tok Pisin lemmas
- Tok Pisin nouns