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Stern
Definitions
- 1 Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
"I haue beene wooed, as I intreat thee now, / Euen by the ſterne, and direfull God of warre, / VVhoſe ſinowie necke in battel nere did bow, / VVho conquers where he comes in euery iarre; […]"
- 2 Grim and forbidding in appearance.
"these barren rocks, your stern inheritance"
- 1 severe and unremitting in making demands wordnet
- 2 of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor; forbidding in aspect wordnet
- 3 not to be placated or appeased or moved by entreaty wordnet
- 4 severely simple wordnet
- 1 A surname.
- 1 The rear part (after end) of a ship or other vessel.
"Holonyms: watercraft < vessel"
- 2 A bird, the black tern, seabird.
- 3 the rear part of a ship wordnet
- 4 The post of management or direction. figuratively
"and sit chiefest stern of public weal"
- 5 the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on wordnet
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- 6 The hinder part of anything.
- 7 The tail of an animal; now used only of the tail of a dog.
"And all attonce her beaſtly bodie raizd / With doubled forces high aboue the ground: / Tho wrapping vp her wrethed ſterne arownd, / Lept fierce vpon his ſhield, [...]"
- 1 To steer, to direct the course of (a ship). ambitransitive, obsolete
- 2 To propel or move backward or stern-first in the water. ambitransitive
Etymology
From Middle English stern, sterne, sturne, from Old English styrne (“stern, grave, strict, austere, hard, severe, cruel”), from Proto-Germanic *sturnijaz (“angry, astonished, shocked”), from Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with Scots stern (“bold, courageous, fierce, resolute”), Old High German stornēn (“to be astonished”), Dutch stuurs (“glum, austere”), Swedish stursk (“insolent”).
Most likely from Old Norse stjórn (“control, steering”), related to stýra (“to steer”), from Proto-Germanic *stiurijaną, whence also English steer. Also possibly from Old Frisian stiarne (“rudder”), from the same Germanic root. The sense referring to a management post alludes to the fact that a sailing ship's captain would often stand on an aft deck.
Most likely from Old Norse stjórn (“control, steering”), related to stýra (“to steer”), from Proto-Germanic *stiurijaną, whence also English steer. Also possibly from Old Frisian stiarne (“rudder”), from the same Germanic root. The sense referring to a management post alludes to the fact that a sailing ship's captain would often stand on an aft deck.
From a variant of tern.
* As a German and Jewish surname, from the noun Stern (“star”). This was also borrowed into various Slavic languages such as Serbo-Crotian and Slovenian. * As an English surname, from the adjective stern.
See also for "stern"
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