Stem vs Twig - What's the difference?

As nouns the difference between stem and twig

is that stem is the stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors while twig is a small thin branch of a tree or bush.

As verbs the difference between stem and twig

is that stem is to remove the stem from while twig is to beat with twigs.

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

* ----

twig

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) twigge, from (etyl) . More at two.

Noun

(wikipedia twig) (en noun)

A small thin branch of a tree or bush.

They used twigs and leaves as a base to start the fire.

* {{quote-book, year=1907, author=

, title=The Dust of Conflict , chapter=1 citation , passage=A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.}}

Derived terms

Verb

(twigg)

To beat with twigs.

Etymology 2

From (etyl) and (etyl) .

Verb

(twigg)

(colloquial, regional) To realise something; to catch on.

:* He hasn't twigged that we're planning a surprise party for him.

* {{quote-web

, date=2012-05-30 , year= , first= , last= , author=John E. McIntyre , authorlink= , title=A future for copy editors , site=Baltimore Sun citation , archiveorg= , accessdate= , passage= Well, with fewer people doing two or three times the work, you may have already twigged to this. }}

To understand the meaning of (a person); to comprehend.

Do you twig me?

To observe slyly; also, to perceive; to discover.

* Foote

Now twig him; now mind him.

* Hawthorne

as if he were looking right into your eyes and twigged something there which you had half a mind to conceal

Etymology 3

Compare tweak.

Verb

(twigg)

(obsolete, Scotland) To twitch; to pull; to tweak.

(Webster 1913)