stern
English
editAlternative forms
editPronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: stûn, IPA(key): /stɜːn/
- (General American) enPR: stûrn, IPA(key): /stɝn/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n
Etymology 1
editFrom 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”).
Adjective
editstern (comparative sterner, superlative sternest)
- Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
- Synonyms: grim, severe; see also Thesaurus:stern
- 1594, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, [verse 17], lines [97–100]:
- 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The First Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
- stern as tutors, and as uncles hard
- 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:
- Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins.
- Grim and forbidding in appearance.
- Synonyms: bleak, sombre; see also Thesaurus:cheerless
- 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion:
- these barren rocks, your stern inheritance
Derived terms
editTranslations
edit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Etymology 2
editMost 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.
Noun
editstern (plural sterns)
- (nautical) The rear part or after end of a ship or vessel.
- 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.
- (figurative) The post of management or direction.
- 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
- and sit chiefest stern of public weal
- The hinder part of anything.
- The tail of an animal; now used only of the tail of a dog.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 18, page 8:
- 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, [...]
Synonyms
edit- (of a ship): poop
Antonyms
editDerived terms
editTranslations
edit
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See also
editVerb
editstern (third-person singular simple present sterns, present participle sterning, simple past and past participle sterned)
- (obsolete, transitive, intransitive) To steer, to direct the course of (a ship).
- (transitive, intransitive, nautical) To propel or move backward or stern-first in the water.
Etymology 3
editFrom a variant of tern.
Noun
editstern (plural sterns)
- A bird, the black tern.
Translations
editAnagrams
editDutch
editEtymology
editPossibly cognate with Latin sturnus (“starling”).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editstern m (plural sterns or sternen, diminutive sterntje n)
Derived terms
editFurther reading
edit- stern on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedia nl
Middle English
editNoun
editstern
- Alternative form of sterne
Mòcheno
editEtymology
editFrom Middle High German stërne, stërre, stërn, from Old High German sterno, from Proto-Germanic *sternǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr (“star”). Cognate with German Stern, English star.
Noun
editstern m
References
edit- Anthony R. Rowley, Liacht as de sproch: Grammatica della lingua mòchena Deutsch-Fersentalerisch, TEMI, 2003.
Old High German
editNoun
editstern m
- Alternative form of sterno
Declension
editcase | singular | plural |
---|---|---|
nominative | stern | sterna |
accusative | stern | sterna |
genitive | sternes | sterno |
dative | sterne | sternum |
instrumental | sternu | — |
Piedmontese
editPronunciation
editNoun
editstern m
Romanian
editEtymology
editPronunciation
editNoun
editstern n (plural sternuri)
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)n
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)n/1 syllable
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English terms derived from Old Frisian
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Nautical
- English verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- en:Animal body parts
- en:Terns
- en:Ship parts
- Dutch terms with audio pronunciation
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Dutch/ɛr
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -s
- Dutch nouns with plural in -en
- Dutch masculine nouns
- nl:Terns
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Mòcheno terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Mòcheno terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂eHs-
- Mòcheno terms inherited from Middle High German
- Mòcheno terms derived from Middle High German
- Mòcheno terms inherited from Old High German
- Mòcheno terms derived from Old High German
- Mòcheno terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Mòcheno terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Mòcheno terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- Mòcheno lemmas
- Mòcheno nouns
- Mòcheno masculine nouns
- mhn:Nature
- Old High German lemmas
- Old High German nouns
- Old High German masculine nouns
- Old High German a-stem nouns
- Piedmontese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Piedmontese lemmas
- Piedmontese nouns
- Piedmontese masculine nouns
- Romanian terms borrowed from French
- Romanian terms derived from French
- Romanian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Romanian lemmas
- Romanian nouns
- Romanian countable nouns
- Romanian neuter nouns