stem

The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.

Noun

  1. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.
    • Where ye may all that are of noble ſtemm / Approach, and kiſs her ſacred veſtures hemm. - 1634, John Milton, “Arcades”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published...
    • While I do pray, learn here thy stem / And true descent. - 1633, George Herbert, Church Monuments:
  2. A branch of a family.
    • This is a stem / Of that victorious stock. - 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...

    1. (taxonomy) 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.

  3. An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
    • Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years. - 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
  4. The above-ground stalk (technically axis) of a vascular plant, and certain anatomically similar, below-ground organs such as rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, and corms.
    • 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. - 1736, Sir Walter Raleigh, The History of the World in Five Books:
    • 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. - 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New...
  5. 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
    • 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...
  6. A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon.
  7. 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.
    • 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 […]. - 1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe,...
  8. A person's leg.
    • 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. - 2008, Lori Wilde, Rhonda Nelson, Cara...
  9. The penis.
    • Waves of ecstasy roll through him as the moustachioed Casanova slides his stem in and out of the spaced-out chick. - 2005, Eric Bogosian, Wasted Beauty, page 135:
  10. A vertical stroke of a letter.
  11. A vertical stroke marking the length of a note in written music.

    Synonyms: tail virgula

  12. A premixed portion of a track for use in audio mastering and remixing.
    • 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...

Origin

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...

Forms

stems

Derived

a-stem bestem 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

Noun alt of, alternative

  1. Alternative form of steem.

Forms

stems

Noun alt of, alternative

  1. Alternative form of STEM.
    • 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...

Origin

Acronym of science, technology, engineering, (and) mathematics.

Forms

stems

Noun alt of, alternative

  1. Alternative spelling of stemme (“lesbian who combines stud and femme traits”).

Origin

Blend of stud + femme.

Forms

stems

Verb Entry 5

  1. To remove the stem from.
    • to stem cherries; to stem tobacco leaves
  2. To be caused or derived; to originate.
    • 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. - 2023 June 2, H Conley, “Studies show top surgery is safe for fat patients, but some surgeons still mandate weight loss”, in STAT:
  3. To descend in a family line.
  4. To direct the stem (of a ship) against; to make headway against.
    • Nor is the pre-eminent tremendousness of the great Sperm Whale anywhere more feelingly comprehended, than on board of those prows which stem him. - 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 41, in Moby-Dick; or, The...
  5. To hit with the stem of a ship; to ram.
    • 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...
  6. To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole.

Forms

stems stemming stemmed

Synonyms

to be due to to arise from

Derived

bestem restem unstemmable

Verb Entry 6

  1. To stop, hinder (for instance, a river or blood).
    • to stem a tide
    • [They] stem the flood with their erected breasts. - 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, London: […]...
    • Stemm'd the wild torrent of a barbarous age. - 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:
  2. 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.
  3. To use a stance with the feet spread apart, bracing them in opposite directions against the two walls of a chimney or dihedral.

Origin

From 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.

Forms

stems stemming stemmed