Stem vs Stew - What's the difference?

stem | stew |

As a noun stem

is (countable).

As a proper noun stew is

a diminutive of the male given name stewart .

stem

English

(wikipedia stem)

Etymology 1

(etyl) stemn, .

Noun

(en noun)

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

* Milton

all that are of noble stem

* Herbert

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

A branch of a family.

* Shakespeare

This is a stem / Of that victorious stock.

An advanced or leading position; the lookout.

* Fuller

Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years.

(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.

* Sir Walter Raleigh

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 .

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

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

(linguistic morphology) 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 [[declension, declensions derive from their stems.

(typography) A vertical stroke of a letter.

(music) A vertical stroke of a symbol representing a note in written music.

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

Derived terms

* brain stem * from stem to stern * stem cell * stemless * stemplot * unstemmed

Verb

(stemm)

To remove the stem from.

to stem''' cherries; to '''stem tobacco leaves

To be caused]] or [[derive, derived; to originate.

The current crisis stems from the short-sighted politics of the previous government.

To descend in a family line.

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

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

* 1596 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , IV.ii:

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

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

Etymology 2

From (etyl) . Cognate with German stemmen, Dutch stemmen, stempen; compare (stammer).

Verb

(stemm)

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

to stem a tide

* Denham

[They] stem the flood with their erected breasts.

* Alexander Pope

Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age.

(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.

Synonyms

* (sense) to be due to, to arise from * See also

Etymology 3

Noun

(en noun)

External links

* * *

Anagrams

* ----

stew

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) estuve (modern French .

Noun

(en-noun)

(label) A cooking-dish used for boiling; a cauldron.

*:And when he came to the chamber there as this lady was the dores of yron vnlocked and vnbolted / And so syr launcelot wente in to the chambre that was as hote as ony stewe / And there syr launcelot toke the fayrest lady by the hand / that euer he sawe / and she was naked as a nedel

(label) A brothel.

*1681 , (John Dryden), (Absalom and Achitophel)

*:And rak'd, for converts, even the court and stews .

*1835 , (Thomas Babington Macaulay), Sir James Mackintosh

*:Because he was chaste, the precinct of his temple is filled with licensed stews .

*1977 , Gãmini Salgãdo, The Elizabethan Underworld , Folio Society, 2006, p.37:

*:Although whores were permitted to sit at the door of the stew , they could not solicit in any way nor ‘chide or throw stones’ at passers-by.

(label) A prostitute.

*1870 , Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood , Wordsworth Classics, 1998, p.367:

*:I noticed then that there was nothing to drink on the table but brandy, and nothing to eat but salted herrings, and a hot, sickly, highly peppered stew .

(label) A pool in which fish are kept in preparation for eating.

An artificial bed of oysters.

(label) A state of agitated excitement, worry, and/or confusion.

Synonyms

* (food) casserole, (British) hotpot

Coordinate terms

* casserole * cassoulet * goulash * ragout

Derived terms

* in a stew * stewpot

Verb

(en verb)

(transitive, or, intransitive, or, ergative) To cook (food) by slowly boiling or simmering.

I'm going to stew some meat for the casserole.

The meat is stewing nicely.

To brew (tea) for too long, so that the flavour becomes too strong.

(figuratively) To suffer under uncomfortably hot conditions.

(figuratively) To be in a state of elevated anxiety or anger.

Synonyms

* (suffer under hot conditions) bake, boil, sweat, swelter * (be in a state of elevated anxiety) brood, fret, sweat, worry

Etymology 2

Abbreviation of steward or stewardess.

Noun

(en noun)

A steward or stewardess on an airplane.

* 1975 November 3, , volume 8, number 44, page 8 [http://google.com/books?id=OekCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA8&dq=stew]:

And then, working as a stew for American Airlines, Mo met another older man.

* 1991 , , 1992 edition, ISBN 0425184226, page 480 [http://google.com/books?id=kP84eUjxv-MC&pg=PA480&dq=stew]:

"We want to know what he's going to be saying on his airplane."

"I don't have the legs to dress up as a stew , doc. Besides, I never learned to do the tea ceremony, either."

* 1992 January, Skip Hollandsworth, "Doing the Hustle", , ISSN 0148-7736, volume 20, issue 1, page 52 [http://google.com/books?id=dysEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA52&dq=stew]:

Dallas was also becoming known as a "stew zoo" because so many flight attendants were relocating there to work for Southwest, Braniff, and American Airlines.

Anagrams

* *