stem
Meanings
- The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.
- A branch of a family.
- A branch, or group of branches, located outside a family or other cladistic group, but which is more closely related to that group than to any other taxon of the same rank.
- An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
- The above-ground stalk (technically axis) of a vascular plant, and certain anatomically similar, below-ground organs such as rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, and corms.
- 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.
- A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon.
- 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.
- A person's leg.
- The penis.
- A vertical stroke of a letter.
- A vertical stroke marking the length of a note in written music.
- To remove the stem from.
- To be caused or derived; to originate.
- To descend in a family line.
- To direct the stem (of a ship) against; to make headway against.
- To hit with the stem of a ship; to ram.
- To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole.
- To stop, hinder (for instance, a river or blood).
- 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.
- To use a stance with the feet spread apart, bracing them in opposite directions against the two walls of a chimney or dihedral.
- Alternative form of steem.
- Alternative form of STEM.
- Alternative spelling of stemme (“lesbian who combines stud and femme traits”).
- Acronym of scanning transmission electron microscope.
- Acronym of science, technology, engineering, (and) mathematics.
- A surname.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English stem, stemme, stempne, stevin, from Old English stemn (“stem”), from Proto-West Germanic *stamni, from Proto-Germanic *stamniz (“stem, tree stalk”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand, stay”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch stam (“stem”), German Stamm (“stem”), Danish and Norwegian stamme (“stem”), Danish stavn, stævn (“stem of a boat”), Faroese stavnur (“stem of a boat”), stovnur (“institution, public body, foundation, basis”), Icelandic stafn (“stem of a boat”), stofn (“trunk, stock, livestock, stem”), Norn stomna, stimna (“strength, ability”), Swedish stäm (“tree trunk, stem”), stäv (“stem of a boat”), stomme (“frame, structure”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐍉𐌼𐌰 (stōma, “substantial grounds, just cause”), Asturian estame (“stamen”), Aragonese estambre (“stamen”), Catalan estam (“stamen”), French étaim (“yarn”), Galician estame (“stamen, yarn”), Italian stame (“stamen”), Portuguese estame (“stem, yarn”), Spanish Spanish estambre (“stamen, a type of yarn”), Latin stāmen (“warp of a loom, thread hanging from a distaff”), Ancient Greek στῆμα (stêma, “stamen of a flower”), στάμνος (stámnos, “earthen jar, bottle for racking off wine”), Albanian shtamë (“pot, jar, pitcher, jug”), Sanskrit स्थामन् (sthā́man, “place, strength”). Doublet of stamen. Not related to English stoma, which is a Greek loan inherited through New Latin.