Stem sb.¹

Forms: 1 stefn, stemn, 6–7 stemme, 7 steame, stemm, 4– stem. [OE. stęmn, stęfn str. masc. (for the corresponding forms in continental Teut. see STEM sb.²):—OTeut. *stamni-z; a parallel and synonymous OTeut. formation (*stamno-z) is represented by (M)LG., (M)Du., OHG., MHG. stam (mod.G. stamm) masc., trunk or stem of a tree (so Sw. stam, Da. stamme, from German); also by OS. stamn (? masc.), ON. stamn, stafn neut., which are recorded only in the derived sense = STEM sb.² The word is prob. f. the root *sta- to STAND + -mn- suffix; cf. Gr. στάμνος earthen jar (? lit. ‘standing vessel’). The ON. and OE. stofn (see STOVEN) tree-stump is prob. unconnected.

  It is remarkable that between the OE. period and the 16th c. only a single instance of the word has been found (quot. 1338 in sense 1 b).]

  1.  The main body (usually more or less cylindrical) of the portion above ground of a tree, shrub, or other plant; a trunk, stock, stalk. (Ordinarily implying a greater degree of slenderness than stock or trunk.)

c. 888.  Ælfred, Boeth., xxxiv. § 10. He onʓinð of þæm wyrtrumum & swa upweardes grewð oð ðone stemn.

a. 1000.  Sal. & Sat., 296 (Gr.). Beam heo abreoteð … astyreð standendne stefn on siðe.

1538.  Elyot, Dict., Caulis, a stalke or stem of an herbe or tree.

1585.  Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 111/1. Scapus,… the stocke, or stemme.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, II. 84/2. The Stem, or Trunk, is the body of the tree to the branches.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 393. From one Root the rising Stem bestows A Wood of Leaves, and Vi’let-purple Boughs.

1712.  trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 36. Cinquefoil … produces its Leaves,… on a Stem or Wire.

1773.  Mrs. Barbauld, Hymn, ‘Praise to God,’ 22. Should rising whirlwinds tear From its stem the ripening ear.

1796.  Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), I. 84. Stem (stipes) formerly called the pillar, which supports the pileus of some of the Fungi.

1818.  Shelley, Rosal. & Helen, 1292. When the living stem Is cankered in its heart, the tree must fall.

1831.  Macgillivray, trans. A. Richard’s Elem. Bot., ii. 103. Many herbaceous stems are employed as food for man and animals.

1833.  Tennyson, Lotos-Eaters, 28. Branches they bore of that enchanted stem, Laden with flower and fruit.

1850.  Miss Pratt, Comm. Things Sea-side, i. 18. The sea eryngo (Eryngium maritimum) has a stem about a foot high.

1909.  G. W. Young, in Contemp. Rev., April, Suppl. 2. The dark solemn stems in dim-seen lines Stand sentinel.

  b.  fig.

c. 888.  Ælfred, Boeth., xxxiv. § 5. Þeah is an God; se is stemn & staðol eallra goda.

1338.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 296. Þe bisshop of Durham trauailed day & nyght, Of strife to felle þe stem.

1611.  Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xvii. § 56. King Edward … thought it no policy long to delay, lest Henry should take growth to a bigger steame.

1659.  W. Chamberlayne, Pharonnida, IV. 94. That short stem of nature, life.

  c.  Bot. The ascending axis (whether above or below ground) of a plant, in contradistinction to the descending axis or root. (The various kinds of subterraneous stem, the bulb, rhizome, tuber, etc., are popularly regarded as ‘roots.’)

1807.  J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 116. The Stem is either simple, as in the White Lily, or branched, as in most instances.

1855.  Miss Pratt, Flower. Plants, VI. 140. The true stem of the fern … from its resemblance to a root is termed the rhizoma.

  † d.  Occasionally, a branch or shoot, in contradistinction to the stock. Obs.

1584.  Greene, Arbasto, Wks. (Grosart), III. 205. We think he little fauoreth the stems that cutteth down the olde stocke.

  2.  The stalk supporting a leaf, flower or fruit; a peduncle, pedicel or petiole.

1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 211. Two louely berries molded on one stem.

1667.  Milton, P. L., VII. 337. Each Plant of the field, which e’re it was in the Earth God made, and every Herb, before it grew On the green stemm.

1781.  Cowper, Retirement, 179. The fruits that hang on pleasure’s flow’ry stem.

1820.  Shelley, Sensit. Plant, III. 40. Till they [weeds] clung round many a sweet flower’s stem.

  b.  transf. in Anat. and Path.

1861.  Pritchard, Hist. Infusoria (ed. 4), 586. Vorticella … Body bell-shaped,… supported on a highly contractile, unbranched pedicle or stem.

1862.  W. Thomson, in Phil. Trans., CLV. 536. The mature Antedon has no true stem.

1898.  J. Hutchinson, in Arch. Surg., IX. 372. A dilated arteriole always enters the stem of a wart.

1912.  Keith, Human Body, ii. 26. When they [the cerebral hemispheres] are raised from the floor or base of the skull we see a great stem—the brain stem—issuing from them; in size it is about the thickness of a baby’s wrist.

  c.  (See quot.)

1905.  Dundee Advertiser, 15 July, 6. The stem, to give the banana its trade name.

  3.  The stock of a family; the main line of descent from which the ‘branches’ of a family are offshoots; the descendants of a particular ancestor. Also abstr., ancestry, pedigree.

  In the 16th and 17th c. commonly associated with L. stemma, in pl. a genealogical tree, pedigree: see STEMMA.

c. 1540.  trans. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist., VIII. (Camden, No. 36), 279. The regall stemme and pedegree was allmost utterlie extinguished.

1586.  Ferne, Blaz. Gentrie, 2. To intreate of the honours, dignities, stemmes, and atchieuments, of certaine personages, nobly discended in England and France.

1586.  Hooker, Giraldus’ Irish Hist., 17/2, in Holinshed. Dardanus the sonne of Jupiter, from whom is deriued vnto vs not onlie the stemme of ancient nobilitie, but also [etc.].

a. 1599.  Spenser, F. Q., VII. vi. 2. Whom, though high Ioue of kingdome did depriue, Yet many of their stemme long after did surviue.

c. 1610.  Women Saints, 80. This happie branch of that vertuous stemme.

1611.  Bible, Isa. xi. 1. There shall come forth a rod out of the stemme of Iesse.

1640.  Howell, Dodona’s Grove, 72. The Imperiall diademe … hath continued these two Ages and more yeares in that stemme which is now so much spoken of.

a. 1645.  Milton, Arcades, 82. Where ye may all that are of noble stemm Approach.

1652.  Heylin, Cosmogr., III. 155. Jarres … of brothers … not only in private families, but in the stems of Princes.

1697.  Evelyn, Numism., viii. 290. Stems and Genealogies of the most Renowned Princes of Germany.

1763.  Churchill, Confer., 15. Recent men who came From stems unknown, and sires without a name.

1781.  Cowper, Expost., 460. The rich, the produce of a nobler stem, Are more intelligent at least.

1818.  Shelley, Hymn Venus, 52. Mortal offspring from a deathless stem.

1827.  Scott, Highl. Widow, v. Allan Breack is a wise man and a kind one, and comes of a good stem.

  b.  An ethnic stock, a race.

c. 1540.  trans. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist., VII. (Camden, No. 36), 258. Emonge whome the Danishe governement beganne longe beefore to bee verie tedius and hatefull, as a thinge moste exitiall and pestilent to the Englishe name and stemme.

1613–6.  W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. v. Cannot I dye but like that brutish stem Which have their best belov’d to die with them.

1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, iv. Wks. (Bohn), II. 22. Neither do this people appear to be of one stem; but collectively a better race than any from which they are derived.

1861.  Pearson, Early & Mid. Ages, 90. The trial of strength which would certainly have taken place had all the invading people been of one stem.

1848.  Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, ii. (1870), 32. The relation between this older race and the Hellenic tribes leads to the conclusion that both alike were derived from the Aryan stem.

  † c.  The primal ancestor or founder of a family.

1604.  E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, VI. xx. 474. The first whom they make the head and steame of this family, was called Ingaroca.

1780.  Mirror, No. 103. The stem of it … was a Norman baron, who came over with the Conqueror.

  † d.  [fig. use of 1 d.] A branch or offshoot of a family. Obs.

1591.  Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., II. v. 41. And now declare sweet Stem from Yorkes great Stock, Why didst thou [etc.]. Ibid. (1599), Hen. V., II. iv. 62. This is a Stem Of that Victorious Stock.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 365. Coberley, a seat of a stem of Barkeleies.

1634.  W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp., Ded. Note. Blessings … be multiplied upon your selfe, your vertuous Consort, my very good Lady, together with all the Stemmes of your Noble family.

  4.  Applied to various objects resembling the stem of a plant or of a flower, etc. (Cf. STALK sb.¹ 4, 5.)

  a.  Calligraphy and Printing. The upright stroke of a letter.

1676.  Moxon, Print Letters, 6. The Stem is the straight fat stroke of the Letter: as in B the upright stroke on the left hand is the Stem.

1685.  Matlock, Fax Nova Artis Scrib., 25. The Length of the tallest Stemms [in Court-Hand], viz. of [b, h, k, l, and w] be One Fourth of an Inch.

1790.  W. Nicholson, in Repert. Arts (1796), V. 147. Instead of leaving a space in the mould for the stem of one letter only.

1899.  De Vinne, Pract. Typogr. (1902), 30. The body-mark, or stem, is the thick line of the face which most clearly indicates the character and the height of the letter. It is better known among printers as the thick-stroke.

  b.  Mus. The vertical line forming part of a minim, crotchet, quaver, etc.

1806.  Calcott, Mus. Gram., i. 2. The Notes of Music consist generally of the parts, a Head and a Stem.

1873.  H. C. Banister, Music, 256. When other notes than semibreves are used, the stems, on each stave, should be turned contrary ways.

  c.  The long cylindrical body of an instrument, etc., as distinguished from the ‘head,’ or from branches or projections; the tube of a thermometer or similar instrument; the tube of a tobacco-pipe.

1815.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 89. When the stem in Fahrenheit’s hydrometer is long, the weight put in the dish at the top, will sometimes render the instrument unsteady.

1827.  Faraday, Chem. Manip., iv. (1842), 136. Thermometers are generally graduated by having two points marked upon their stems, corresponding to the melting temperature of ice and the boiling temperature of pure water.

1843.  Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 213. A piece of bolt-iron of five-eighths of an inch diameter, or of the size of the stem of the bolt, is cut off somewhat longer than the intended length.

1843.  Dickens, Chr. Carol, iv. 131. The old man … having trimmed his smoky lamp … with the stem of his pipe.

1851.  in Abridgm. Specif. Patents Locks, etc. (1873), 87. The convenience offered by thus having the bit of the key separate from the stem.

1869.  Rankine, Machine & Hand-tools, Pl. P 22, On the lower end of this boss is formed the socket, S, for the reception of the stem, T, of the pick, u.

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 2373. Stem (Valve), the projecting-rod which guides a valve in its reciprocations. Ibid., Stem (Vehicle), the bar to which the bow of a falling hood is hinged.

1892.  Photogr. Ann., II. 83. A cork, bored with two holes, through one of which passes the stem of a globular funnel.

  d.  The upright cylindrical support of a cup, a wineglass, or other vessel.

1835.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, Publ. Dinners. Several gentlemen knock the stems off their wine-glasses, in the vehemence of their approbation.

1850.  J. Marryat, Pottery & Porcelain, 288. Stem. Culot, Fr., that portion of a vase which unites the body to the base, and is simple, elongated, shortened, or variously fashioned.

1883.  H. J. Powell, Princ. Glass-Making, 61. Wine-glasses or goblets are classified by the nature of their stems, or by the nature of their feet.

1870.  F. R. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 90. The stem [of the font] is composed of a portion of a Saxon cross.

  e.  Arch. (See quot.)

1835.  R. Willis, Archit. Mid. Ages, vii. 108. Where a pier is made up of four cylindrical shafts attached to a nucleus or stem, this nucleus and the lateral shafts carry the longitudinal arches.

  f.  dial. (See quot.)

1796.  W. H. Marshall, W. Eng., I. 330. Stem, the handle of a fork.

1838.  Holloway, Prov. Dict., Stem, a long round shaft used as a handle for various tools.

  g.  Watchmaking. The pendant-shank watch.

1866.  in Abridgm. Specif. Patents, Watches, etc. (1871), 157. Instead of the push piece consisting of a rod passing up the centre of the pendant stem. Ibid. (1871), 156. The pendant is so arranged that the bow or stem cannot be wrenched off by torsion.

1881.  F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm. Handbk. (ed. 4), 73. The part of the winding stem below the bevelled pinion is square.

1885.  D. Glasgow, Watch & Clock Making, 262. The stem is fitted easy in the pendant.

  h.  The SHAFT of a hair, of a feather.

1845.  Encycl. Metropol., VII. 197/2. The Hair-shaft, Stem or Cylinder, caulis, filamentum, truncus pili, is that part commonly called the hair. Ibid., 205/1. The Shaft or Stem [of a feather], rachis, though usually described as distinct, might not improperly be considered as a continuation of the barrel.

  5.  Philol. † a. The primary word from which a derivative is formed. Obs.

a. 1653.  Gouge, Comm. Hebr. viii. 6. The noun (λειτουργία) translated ‘ministry’ is derived from the same stemme that ‘minister’ (λειτουργός) was.

  b.  That part of an inflected word that remains unchanged (except for euphonic variations) in the process of inflexion; the theme of a word (or of a particular group of its cases or tenses), to which the flexional suffixes are attached.

1851.  T. H. Key, in Trans. Philol. Soc., 93. We refer to such stems as … βα and βαν of εβησα and βαινω.

1865.  Malden, Ibid., 169. All first perfects, except those in which the suffix κα is attached to a stem ending in a vowel.

1871.  [see present-stem, PRESENT sb.¹ 3 c].

  c.  Applied to a Semitic triliteral ‘root.’ Also attrib.

1874.  Davidson, Hebr. Gram., xvi. 31. Stems in Hebrew are considered to contain three consonantal letters. The noun may be regarded as expressing the stem idea in rest.

  6.  Short for stem-stitch (see 8).

1882.  Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 461. To work Beginner’s Stem: This stitch is used to form the stalks of leaves, or [etc.]. Ibid. Buckle Stem differs from Stem Stitch by being worked with a Plain Edge upon both sides, [etc.].

  7.  attrib. and Comb.: (sense 1) stem-bark, -climber, -fruiting, -growth, -leaf, -like adj., -node, -selecting adj., -sucker, -tendril, -wood; (sense 2 b) stem-cell, -joint, process; (sense 5 b) stem-suffix, -vowel.

1832.  Planting, 7, in Lib. Usef. Kn., Husb., III. During this conversion of the *stem-bark to that of the root the plant advances but little.

1835.  A. Sedgwick, trans. Claus’ Text-bk. Zool., II. 79. Ctenostomata … *Stem-cells and root-filaments frequently occur.

1875.  *Stem-climbers [see TENDRIL sb. 3].

1821.  S. F. Gray, Brit. Plants, I. 43. *Stem-fruiting, caulocarpæ. The fruit growing on the stem.

1868.  Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 257. When the vertical *stem-growth is three or more inches in each sapling, the work may be reduced.

1862.  W. Thomson, in Phil. Trans., CLV. 528. The sheaf-like calcareous cylinders which form the axes of the *stem-joints.

1796.  Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), I. 84. *Stem-Leaves (caulina) such as grow immediately upon the stem, without the intervention of branches.

1870.  Hooker, Stud. Flora, 32. Stem-leaves broadly ovate.

1611.  Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VII. ix. 238. Whose *stemlike draught annexed, both in the marriages, issues, and collaterals, are therein branched as farre as any warrantable Records affordeth.

1855.  Orr’s Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat., 87. A singular but very abundant stem-like fossil.

1882.  Vines, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 293. Each leaf begins with a node (the basal node), by which it is united with the *stem-node.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 521. The branches of the *stem process (neuraxon) of a neuron may offer a cross-section 370,000 times greater than that of the parent stem.

1837.  P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 287. The false parasites, or *stem-selecting epiphytes, belong chiefly to the tribe of the Epidendra or Air-plants.

1842.  Loudon, Suburban Hort., 279. The branches of a coniferous plant pegged down to force it to throw up a *stem-sucker as a leader.

1902.  Greenough & Kittredge, Words, 169. The exact nature of *stem-suffixes is far from certain.

1877.  A. W. Bennett, trans. Thomé’s Bot. (1879), 109. According as they belong to the stem … or to the leaf … they are called *stem- or leaf-tendrils.

1852.  Proc. Philol. Soc., V. 197. The weakening of a strong *stem-vowel by virtue of a weak vowel in the suffix.

1884.  Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 155. The differences between the wood of the root and that of the branches … are as regards the width of the tracheides even greater than in the case of the *stem-wood.

  8.  Special comb.: stem-bed Geol., a stratum containing stems of trees; † stem-book [ad. G. stammbuch, Du. stamboek], an album; stem-bud Bot. (see quot.); stem-building Gram. [trans. G. stammbau], the formation of stems from roots; stem-clasping a. (see quot.); stem-composition Philol., composition of word-stems, as distinguished from syntactical combination of words; stem-eelworm, a nematoid causing stem-sickness in certain plants; stem-end, that end of a fruit that is next to the stem; stem-father [cf. G. stammvater], a tribal ancestor stem-fly (see quot.); stem-house nonce-wd. [after G. stammhaus] the ancestral mansion of a family; stem-line, (a) the upright line (edge of a tablet, etc.) on which the strokes forming the Ogham alphabet are set; (b) a line of genealogical descent; stem-muscle, pessary, sawfly (see quots.); stem-setting a. U.S., (of a watch) that is set by rotation of a stem (1895 in Funk’s Stand. Dict.); stem-sick a., (of plants) having the stems affected by a malady produced by the eelworm; hence stem-sickness; stem stitch Needlework (see quot.); stem-wind a. U.S. = stem-winding a.; stem-winder U.S. (a) a keyless watch; (b) a geared logging locomotive (Webster, 1911); (c) slang, a person or thing that is first-rate; stem-winding sb. (see quot.); stem-winding a. U.S. (of a watch) that is wound up by means of a stem.

1853.  J. Morris, in Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc., IX. 338. Clays between the above [oyster-bed and marly rock] and the *stem-bed.

1592.  Moryson, Lett., in Itin. (1617), I. 38. Desiring to have the name of so famous a Divine, written in my *stemme-booke, with his Mott, after the Dutch fashion.

1877.  A. W. Bennett, trans. Thomé’s Bot. (1879), 71. The *stem-bud, or plumule, is divided from the outset into stem and leaves.

1870.  J. F. Smith, Ewald’s Introd. Hebr. Gram., 91. *Stem-building I. Of Verbs.

1796.  Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), I. 84. *Stem-clasping (amplexicaulis) … embracing the stem.

1866.  Treas. Bot., 1094/1. Stem clasping, when the base of a leaf surrounds a stem. The same as Amplexicaul.

1902.  Greenough & Kittredge, Words, 177. By this process of *stem-composition a kind of rudimentary syntax arose.

1912.  W. H. Stevenson, in Eng. Hist. Rev., Jan., 22. The Old English dialects adhering to the older (Indo-Germanic) and more proper stem-composition.

1890.  Eleanor A. Ormerod, Injur. Insects (ed. 2), 51. *Stem eelworm. Tylenchus devastatrix.

1868.  Rep. U. S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 240. Cut, halved lengthwise, then across, *stem end.

1879.  Encycl. Brit., IX. 75/1. The Leinster and Meath Fenians, consisting of the Clanna Baiscné, from a *stemfather Bascné.

1844.  H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 951. The wheat *stem-fly, Chlorops pumilionis,… derives its specific name,… in consequence of the effects it produces on the plants it attacks.

1762.  trans. Busching’s Syst. Geog., IV. 408. Nesselrod, the *stem-house of the ancient noble family of Nesselrod.

1892.  J. Anderson, in J. R. Allen, Early Chr. Monum. Scot. (1903), p. xx. The nose and the fore-leg of the stag cross and interrupt the *stem-line of the ogham inscription.

1914.  Munro, Prehist. Britain, ii. 25. The progress of man’s intellectuality, ever since he diverged from the common stem line from which he and the anthropoid apes have descended.

1870.  H. A. Nicholson, Man. Zool., I. 61. A spiral contractile fibre [in Vorticella], which is sometimes called the *‘stem-muscle.’

1876.  Dunglison, Med. Lex., Pessary, Intraūterine, *stem pessary,… an instrument for rectifying uterine displacements—as [etc.].

1895.  D. Sharp, Insects, I. 504. Cephidae—*Stem Sawflies.

1896.  Lydekker, Roy. Nat. Hist., VI. 15. Stem Saw-flies … pass their lives in the stems of plants or young shoots of trees.

1890.  Eleanor A. Ormerod, Injur. Insects (ed. 2), 54. I have notes of Clover plants *stem-sick from this Eelworm. Ibid., 52. ‘Stem-sickness.’

1882.  Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 461. *Stem Stitch … is largely used to form the stems, tendrils, curves, and raised parts in Honiton and other Pillow Lace making. There are three kinds of Stem Stitch—Beginner’s Stem, Buckle Stem, and Stem Stitch proper.

1900.  Westm. Gaz., 17 Feb., 10/1. 1,000 *stem-wind, brass, hunting-watch movements.

1867.  Hartford Daily Courant, 24 Aug., 4/5. If the *stem-winders, as they are called, had not been introduced and praised just at the right time, the trade of Geneva would have suffered in like proportion.

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 2373/2. Some of the stem-winders are so constructed that by pushing in the pendant it is [etc.].

1892.  Gunter, Miss Dividends (1893), 68. ‘Ain’t be a stem-winder, though?’ goes on the boy. ‘He was the most popular man on the line when it was built.’

1884.  F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 247. *Stem Winding … [is] winding by means of a stem running through the pendant of a watch. The ordinary method of keyless winding.

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 2373. *Stem-winding Watch.