stern

See also: Stern

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: stûrn, IPA^(key): /stɝn/
• enPR: stûn, IPA^(key): /stɜːn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n

Etymology 1

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English stern, sterne, sturne, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English styrne (“stern, grave, strict, austere, hard, severe, cruel”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *sturnijaz (“angry, astonished, shocked”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *ster-, *ter- (“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

stern (comparative sterner, superlative sternest)

1. Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
   • 1594, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, [verse 17], lines [97–100]:

     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; […]

   • John Dryden

     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.

2. Grim and forbidding in appearance.
   • William Wordsworth

     these barren rocks, your stern inheritance

Translations

having a hardness and severity of nature or manner

• Arabic: صَارِم (ṣārim), مُتَشَدِّد (mutašaddid)
• Armenian: խիստ (hy) (xist)
• Bulgarian: суро́в (bg) m (suróv), строг (bg) m (strog), твърд (bg) m (tvǎrd)
• Catalan: sever
• Dutch: streng (nl)
• Finnish: ankara (fi)
• French: sévère (fr)
• Georgian: სასტიკი (ka) (sasṭiḳi)
• German: streng (de), hart (de), bitter (de), unnachgiebig (de), ernst (de), unnachsichtig, gestreng (de) (dated)
• Greek: αυστηρός (el) (afstirós)
• Hungarian: szigorú (hu), rideg (hu)
• Italian: austero (it), severo (it), duro (it), rigido (it)
• Japanese: 厳格な (ja) (げんかくな, genkaku na)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latin: firmatus
• Maori: makiki, taikaha
• Portuguese: severo (pt), austero (pt), rígido (pt)
• Romanian: dur (ro), sever (ro)
• Russian: стро́гий (ru) (strógij), суро́вый (ru) (suróvyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic:

  Roman: jak (sh), snažan (sh), čvrst (sh), čeličan, grubost (sh), surovost (sh), strogost (sh)

• Slovak: neúprosný, tvrdý, prísny
• Spanish: severo (es)
• Swedish: sträng (sv), rigorös (sv), strikt (sv), barsk (sv), hård (sv)
• Turkish: sert (tr), haşin (tr), katı (tr)

grim and forbidding in appearance

• Bulgarian: неприве́тлив (bg) m (neprivétliv), недружелю́бен (bg) m (nedruželjúben), негостоприе́мен (bg) m (negostopriémen), мра́чен (bg) m (mráčen)
• Finnish: ankara (fi), tuima (fi)
• French: austère (fr)
• German: düster (de), unfreundlich (de), abweisend (de), abschreckend (de)
• Greek: βλοσυρός (el) (vlosyrós)
• Hungarian: zord (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: arcigno (it), inflessibile (it)
• Japanese: 荘厳な (ja) (そうごんな, sōgon na)
• Russian: мра́чный (ru) (mráčnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: gruamach
• Slovak: neprívetivý
• Swedish: hård (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• (deprecated template usage) Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 嚴厲／严厉 (yánlì), ^{(please verify)} 严厉 (zh) (yánlì)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• (deprecated template usage) Telugu: ^{(please verify)} కఠినమైన (te) (kaṭhinamaina)

Etymology 2

Most likely from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old Norse stjórn (“control, steering”), related to stýra (“to steer”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *stiurijaną, whence also English steer. Also possibly from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old Frisian stiarne (“rudder”), from the same Germanic root.

Noun

stern (plural sterns)

Stern of the VOC ship 'Amsterdam' (replica)

1. (nautical) The rear part or after end of a ship or vessel.
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     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.

2. (figurative) The post of management or direction.
   • William Shakespeare

     and sit chiefest stern of public weal

3. The hinder part of anything.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

4. The tail of an animal; now used only of the tail of a dog.

Antonyms

• bow

Derived terms

• from stem to stern
• sternpost

Translations

the rear part or after end of a ship or vessel

• Armenian: նավախել (hy) (navaxel)
• Asturian: popa f
• Belarusian: карма f (karma)
• Bulgarian: кърма́ (bg) f (kǎrmá)
• Catalan: popa (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 船尾 (zh) (chuánwěi), ^{(please verify)} 舳 (zh) (zhú)

• Czech: záď f
• Danish: agterstævn c, agterende c
• Dutch: achtersteven (nl) m, achterschip (nl) n
• Erzya: венчбуло (venčbulo)
• Esperanto: poŭpo, pobo
• Estonian: ahter
• Finnish: perä (fi), ahteri (fi)
• French: poupe (fr) f, arrière (fr) m
• Galician: popa (gl) f
• Georgian: კიჩო (ḳičo)
• German: Heck (de) n, Schiffshinterteil n, Hinterschiff n
• Gothic: 𐌽𐍉𐍄𐌰 m (nōta)
• Greek: πρύμνη (el) f (prýmni)

  Ancient: πρύμνη f (prúmnē)

• Hungarian: tat (hu), hajótat (hu)
• Icelandic: skutur m
• Ido: pupo (io)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: deireadh m
• Istriot: poûpa f
• Italian: poppa (it) f
• Japanese: 船尾 (ja) (せんび, senbi)
• Korean: 선미 (ko) (seonmi)
• Latin: puppis f
• Manx: cashtal jerree m
• Maori: kei, tā, noko
• Norman: poupe f, tillac m
• Norwegian: akterende (no) m

  Bokmål: akterstavn (no) m, hekk m

  Nynorsk: hekk m

• Polish: rufa (pl) f
• Portuguese: popa (pt) f
• Russian: корма́ (ru) f (kormá)
• Slovak: korma f
• Slovene: krma (sl) f
• Spanish: popa (es) f
• Swedish: akter (sv) c, bakstam c poop (sv) c (archaic)
• Tagalog: popa
• Ukrainian: корма (uk) f (korma)
• Venetian: pòpe (vec) m (small ship), pupa (vec) f (big ship)
• Volapük: pödanaf, pödastev
• Welsh: starn f

figuratively: post of management or direction

• Finnish: peräsin (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

hinder part of anything

• Finnish: perä (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

tail of an animal

• Finnish: häntä (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

See also

• keel
• aft

Etymology 3

From a variant of tern.

Noun

stern (plural sterns)

1. A bird, the black tern.

Translations

black tern — see black tern

Anagrams

• 'rents, Ernst, Snert, nerts, rents, snert, terns

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Dutch

Etymology

Possibly cognate with Latin sturnus (“starling”).

Pronunciation

• audio:

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /stɛr/
• Rhymes: -ɛr

Noun

stern m (plural sterns or sternen, diminutive sterntje n)

1. tern

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Middle English

Noun

stern (plural sternes)

1. Alternative form of sterne

References

• “sterne (n.1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 10 August 2018.

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Mòcheno

Etymology

From Bavarian Stean, from Middle High German stërne, stërre, stërn, from Old High German sterno, from Proto-Germanic *sternǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr.

Noun

stern m

1. star (luminous dot appearing in the night sky)

References

• Anthony R. Rowley, Liacht as de sproch: Grammatica della lingua mòchena Deutsch-Fersentalerisch, TEMI, 2003.