Word: stem Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *stéh₂mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *sth₂mnís Proto-Germanic *stamniz Proto-West Germanic *stamni Old English stemn Middle English stemme English stem 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. Pronunciation: /stɛm/, /stɪm/, /stem/ 1. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors. Example: Where ye may all that are of noble ſtemm / Approach, and kiſs her ſacred veſtures hemm. Example: While I do pray, learn here thy stem / And true descent. 2. A branch of a family. Example: This is a stem / Of that victorious stock. 3. A branch of a family. 4. An advanced or leading position; the lookout. Example: Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years. 5. The above-ground stalk (technically axis) of a vascular plant, and certain anatomically similar, below-ground organs such as rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, and corms. Example: 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. Example: He had placed her upon the grass by now, her back resting against the stem of a huge tree. At her question he stepped back where he could the better see her face. 6. 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. Example: the stem of an apple or a cherry Example: 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. 7. A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon. 8. 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. Example: The praenomen and nomen for the most part consisted of simple stems with the suffix -us or -ius, which correspond to some of the contracted forms in other languages […]. 9. A person's leg. Labels: slang Example: 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. 10. The penis. Labels: slang Example: Waves of ecstasy roll through him as the moustachioed Casanova slides his stem in and out of the spaced-out chick. 11. A vertical stroke of a letter. 12. A vertical stroke marking the length of a note in written music. 13. A premixed portion of a track for use in audio mastering and remixing. Example: 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. 14. The vertical or nearly vertical forward extension of the keel, to which the forward ends of the planks or strakes are attached. 15. The front part of a vessel. Labels: broadly Example: from stem to stern Example: 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. 16. A component on a bicycle that connects the handlebars to the bicycle fork. 17. A part of an anatomic structure considered without its possible branches or ramifications. 18. A crack pipe; or the long, hollow portion of a similar pipe (i.e. meth pipe) resembling a crack pipe. Labels: slang 19. A winder on a clock, watch, or similar mechanism. Labels: UK