stern
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: stûn
ipa: /stɜːn/
enpr: stûrn
ipa: /stɝn/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n
Forms: form: sterner
form: sternest
form: sterne
Etymology: From Middle English stern, sterne, sturne, from Old English styrne (“stern, grave, strict, austere, hard, severe, cruel”), from Proto-Germanic *sturnijaz (“angry, astonished, shocked”), from Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with Scots stern (“bold, courageous, fierce, resolute”), Old High German stornēn (“to be astonished”), Dutch stuurs (“glum, austere”), Swedish stursk (“insolent”).
Senses: examples: text: I haue beene wooed, as I intreat thee now, / Euen by the ſterne, and direfull God of warre, / VVhoſe ſinowie necke in battel nere did bow, / VVho conquers where he comes in euery iarre; […]
ref: 1594, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, [verse 17], lines [97–100]:
text: stern as tutors, and as uncles hard
ref: 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The First Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
text: Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins.
ref: 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:
synonyms: grim
severe
glosses: Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
examples: text: these barren rocks, your stern inheritance
ref: 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion:
synonyms: word: bleak
word: sombre
word: cheerless
word: comfortless
word: bleak
word: dark
word: depressing
word: desolate
word: dire
word: disconsolate
word: dismal
word: doleful
word: dolesome
word: drear
word: drearisome
word: dreary
word: dreich
word: forlorn
word: gayless
word: gray
word: gloomsome
word: gloomy
word: grim
word: joyless
word: lack-laughter
word: lugubrious
word: melancholy
word: mirthless
word: miserable
word: no joke
word: saturnine
word: solemn
word: somber
word: sombre
word: spiritless
word: sullen
word: sunless
word: uncheerful
word: uncheery
word: unhappy
word: unmerry
word: wintry
word: woeful
glosses: Grim and forbidding in appearance.
Synonyms: word: callous
word: cold
word: cold-eyed
word: dour
word: flint-hearted
word: forbidding
word: frosty
word: grim
word: hard
word: hard-boiled
word: hardened
word: hardhearted
word: heartless
word: harsh
word: humorless
word: icy
word: iron-hearted
word: insensitive
word: rigorous
word: rockhearted
word: severe
word: stern
word: stonehearted
word: stony
word: stonyhearted
word: strict
word: tough
word: unsympathetic
word: unmoved
Hypernyms: word: alexithymic
word: serious
Hyponyms: word: tsundere
Coordinate terms: word: aloof
word: apathetic
word: impartial
Derived terms: sternly
sternness
stern plane
stern sex
stern sheets
stern-wheeler
Related terms: word: ghastly
word: mean
word: obstinate
word: resilient
word: rigid
word: ruthless
word: sinister
word: strong
word: sturdy
word: surly
word: taciturn
word: uncompassionate
word: unrelenting
word: cheerless