stem

Ruis die stem van ons geliefde, van ons land Suid-Afrika.

1921, “Die Stem van Suid-Afrika”, C.J. Langenhoven (lyrics), M.L. de Villiers (music), South Africa:

Rises the voice of our beloved, of our country South Africa.

From Dutch stem, from Middle Dutch stemme, from Old Dutch *stemma, from Proto-Germanic *stebnō, *stamnijō.


stem

af-verb

stem (present stem, present participle stemmende, past participle gestem)

stem (present)
stemmende (participle present)
gestem (participle past)


stem

voice, sound made by the mouth using airflow

Zij is haar stem kwijt.

(phonetics) voice, property formed by vibration of the vocal cords

nl-noun

stem f (plural stemmen, diminutive stemmetje n)

stemmen (plural)
stemmetje (diminutive neuter)

Afrikaans: stem

Negerhollands: stem

→ Aukan: sitemu

desc

→ Caribbean Javanese: setèm, nyetèm, nyetèmi

→ Indonesian: sêtèm

→ Indonesian: suara (semantic loan)

→ Papiamentu: stèm

→ Sranan Tongo: sten, stèm

→ Trió: sten

From Middle Dutch stemme, from Old Dutch *stemma, from Proto-West Germanic *stebnu, from Proto-Germanic *stebnō, *stamnijō. Under influence of Latin vox (“voice, word”), it acquired the now obsolete sense of “word”.


stem

first-person singular present indicative

(in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative


stem

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 1646, →OCLC, page 55:

While I do pray, learn here thy stem / And true descent.

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

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 Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

(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.

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):

An advanced or leading position; the lookout.

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:

(botany) The above-ground stalk (technically axis) of a vascular plant, and certain anatomically similar, below-ground organs such as rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, and corms.

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.

2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:

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.

A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon.

(linguistics) 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.

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 Summers, August Harlequin Blaze:

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:

(typography) A vertical stroke of a letter.

(music) A vertical stroke marking the length of a note in written music.

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.

2019, Karl Pedersen, Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard, The Recording, Mixing, and Mastering Reference Handbook, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 268:

(music) A premixed portion of a track for use in audio mastering and remixing.

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.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

(nautical) The vertical or nearly vertical forward extension of the keel, to which the forward ends of the planks or strakes are attached.

(cycling) A component on a bicycle that connects the handlebars to the bicycle fork.

(anatomy) A part of an anatomic structure considered without its possible branches or ramifications.

(slang) A crack pipe; or the long, hollow portion of a similar pipe (i.e. meth pipe) resembling a crack pipe.

(chiefly British) A winder on a clock, watch, or similar mechanism.

the apple does not fall far from the stem

سَاق نَبَات

botany: above-ground stalk of a vascular plant

дръ́жка

slender supporting member for an individual part of a plant

дръ́жка

narrow supporting structure on certain man-made objects

varsi

music: vertical stroke of a symbol representing a note in written music

форщевен

nautical: forward vertical extension of the keel

stuurpen

Component on a bicycle that connects the handlebars to the bicycle fork

From Middle English stem, stemme, stempne, stevin, from Old English stemn, from Proto-West Germanic *stamni, from Proto-Germanic *stamniz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand, stay”).


stem

to stem cherries; to stem tobacco leaves

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:

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:

To direct the stem (of a ship) against; to make headway against.

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:

(obsolete) To hit with the stem of a ship; to ram.

To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole.

en-verb

stem (third-person singular simple present stems, present participle stemming, simple past and past participle stemmed)

stems (present singular third-person)
stemming (participle present)
stemmed (participle past)
stemmed (past)

ohjata kohti (jotakin)

to direct the stem of a ship against something


stem

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, 4th edition, London: […] [John Macock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1668, →OCLC:

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:

(transitive) To stop, hinder (for instance, a river or blood).

(skiing) 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.

In rock climbing, to use a stance with the feet spread apart, bracing them in opposite directions against the two walls of a chimney or dihedral.

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.


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 abilities and competencies of black male and female students.

2015 May 29, BBC News, How do US black students perform at school?:

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


stem

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


stem

(nautical) stem: the vertical or nearly vertical forward extension of the keel, to which the forward ends of the planks or strakes are attached.

id-noun

stem (first-person possessive stemku, second-person possessive stemmu, third-person possessive stemnya)

stemku (first-person possessive)
stemmu (possessive second-person)
stemnya (possessive third-person)

From English stem, from Middle English stem, stemme, stempne, stevin, from Old English stemn, from Proto-Germanic *stamniz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand, stay”).


stem

first-person singular present active subjunctive of stō