stem

Etymology 1

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

noun

1. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.
   While I do pray, learn here thy stem / And true descent. 1633, George Herbert, Church Monuments
2. A branch of a family.
3. An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
4. (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.
   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
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 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
6. A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon.
7. (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.
8. (slang) 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 Summers, August Harlequin Blaze
9. (slang) 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. (typography) A vertical stroke of a letter.
11. (music) A vertical stroke marking the length of a note in written music.
12. (music) 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 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, page 268
13. (nautical) The vertical or nearly vertical forward extension of the keel, to which the forward ends of the planks or strakes are attached.
14. (cycling) A component on a bicycle that connects the handlebars to the bicycle fork.
15. (anatomy) A part of an anatomic structure considered without its possible branches or ramifications.
16. (slang) A crack pipe; or the long, hollow portion of a similar pipe (i.e. meth pipe) resembling a crack pipe.
17. (chiefly Britain) A winder on a clock, watch, or similar mechanism.

verb

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. 2 June 23, 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.
5. (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
6. To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole.

Etymology 2

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.

verb

1. (transitive) To stop, hinder (for instance, a river or blood).
   to stem a tide
2. (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.

Etymology 3

noun

1. Alternative form of steem

Etymology 4

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

noun

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 abilities and competencies of black male and female students. May 29 2015, BBC News, How do US black students perform at school?

Etymology 5

Blend of stud + femme

noun

1. A lesbian, chiefly African-American, exhibiting both stud and femme traits.