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Stern vs Astern - What's the difference?

stern | astern |

In nautical terms the difference between stern and astern

is that stern is the rear part or after end of a ship or vessel while astern is behind.

As a noun stern

is the rear part or after end of a ship or vessel.

As an adverb astern is

beyond the stern when viewed from aboard.

stern

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) stern, sterne, sturne, from (etyl) .

Adjective

(er)
  • Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
  • * (John Dryden)
    • stern as tutors, and as uncles hard
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=76, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Snakes and ladders , passage=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.
  • * (William Wordsworth)
    • these barren rocks, your stern inheritance

    Etymology 2

    Most likely from (etyl) , from the same Germanic root.

    Noun

    (wikipedia stern) (en noun)
  • (nautical) The rear part or after end of a ship or vessel.
  • * , chapter=7
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=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.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • and sit chiefest stern of public weal
  • The hinder part of anything.
    • (Spenser)
  • The tail of an animal; now used only of the tail of a dog.
    • Antonyms
    * bow
    Derived terms
    * from stem to stern * sternpost
    See also
    * keel

    Etymology 3

    (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A bird, the black tern.

    • Anagrams

    * * * * ---- ==Mòcheno==

    Noun

    (m)
  • (l) (luminous dot appearing in the night sky)

    • References

    *

    astern

    English

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (label) Beyond the stern when viewed from aboard.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)
    • , title= The Three Corpse Trick, chapter=5 , passage=The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently been painted a vivid green.}}

    Derived terms

    * astern of

    Antonyms

    * ahead

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (nautical) behind
  • * If one ship is following another, the first is astern when viewed from the second.

    • Usage notes

    * Within the ship, the corresponding adjective is abaft. An object nearer the stern than the mainmast is abaft the mainmast.

    Anagrams

    * *