stem
verbEtymology
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.
To remove the stem from.
- to stem cherries; to stem tobacco leaves
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:
To descend in a family line.
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 Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 199:
Obsolete 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 might, / Their wooden ribs are shaken nigh a sonder […]1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii:
To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole.
- Synonyms
- to be due to, to arise from
- Derived terms
- bestem, restem, unstemmable