stem
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: anatomy
biology
botany
cycling
entertainment
hobbies
human-sciences
lifestyle
linguistics
media
medicine
music
natural-sciences
nautical
publishing
sciences
sports
taxonomy
transport
typography
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.
Inflected forms:
form: stems
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: stems
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: stemming
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: stemmed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: stemmed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.
pos: noun
examples: Where ye may all that are of noble ſtemm / Approach, and kiſs her ſacred veſtures hemm.
While I do pray, learn here thy stem / And true descent.
gloss: A branch of a family.
pos: noun
examples: This is a stem / Of that victorious stock.
gloss: A branch of a family.
pos: noun
gloss: An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
pos: noun
examples: Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years.
gloss: The above-ground stalk (technically axis) of a vascular plant, and certain anatomically similar, below-ground organs such as rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, and corms.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
examples: the stem of an apple or a cherry
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.
gloss: A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon.
pos: noun
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
examples: 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 […].
gloss: A person's leg.
pos: noun
tags: slang
examples: 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.
gloss: The penis.
pos: noun
tags: slang
examples: Waves of ecstasy roll through him as the moustachioed Casanova slides his stem in and out of the spaced-out chick.
gloss: A vertical stroke of a letter.
pos: noun
gloss: A vertical stroke marking the length of a note in written music.
pos: noun
gloss: A premixed portion of a track for use in audio mastering and remixing.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: The vertical or nearly vertical forward extension of the keel, to which the forward ends of the planks or strakes are attached.
pos: noun
gloss: The front part of a vessel.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: from stem to stern
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.
gloss: A component on a bicycle that connects the handlebars to the bicycle fork.
pos: noun
gloss: A part of an anatomic structure considered without its possible branches or ramifications.
pos: noun
gloss: A crack pipe; or the long, hollow portion of a similar pipe (i.e. meth pipe) resembling a crack pipe.
pos: noun
tags: slang
gloss: A winder on a clock, watch, or similar mechanism.
pos: noun
tags: UK
gloss: To remove the stem from.
pos: verb
examples: to stem cherries; to stem tobacco leaves
gloss: To be caused or derived; to originate.
pos: verb
examples: The current crisis stems from the short-sighted politics of the previous government.
Weight stigma often stems from an idea that patients are at fault for their body size.
gloss: To descend in a family line.
pos: verb
gloss: To direct the stem (of a ship) against; to make headway against.
pos: verb
examples: Nor is the pre-eminent tremendousness of the great Sperm Whale anywhere more feelingly comprehended, than on board of those prows which stem him.
gloss: To hit with the stem of a ship; to ram.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: 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 […]
gloss: To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole.
pos: verb
Derived words: a-stem
bluestem
brain stem
brittlestem
celestial stem
consonant stem
destem
flower stem
stem to stern
give the stem
heavenly stem
i-stem
Mach stem
macrostem
mainstem
multistem
nonstem
oblique stem
o-stem
pipestem
pseudostem
question stem
redstem
ringstem
screwstem
softstem bulrush
stem-and-leaf
stem and leaf
stembark
stem borer
stem cell
stem-changing verb
stem-clasping
stem duchy
stem family
stemflow
stem for stem
stem ginger
stem group
stemhead
stemless
stemlet
stem lettuce
stemlike
stemline
stem-loop
stem mammal
stemmer
stemmery
stemmy
stemness
stem node
stemplot
stempost
stem siren
stem stitch
stem the rose
stem the tide
stemward
stemwards
stemware
stem-winder
stemwinder
straw stem
substem
tenderstem
the apple does not fall far from the stem
unstemmed
u-stem
vinestem
wire stem
wirestem
bestem
restem
unstemmable
Translations:
lang: Azerbaijani
word: qol
lang: Finnish
word: haara
lang: Finnish
word: sukuhaara
lang: German
word: Zweig
lang: German
word: Seitenlinie
lang: Hungarian
word: ág
lang: Hungarian
word: nemzetség
lang: Italian
word: ceppo
lang: Italian
word: ramo
lang: Italian
word: linea
lang: Swedish
word: gren