stern

stern · adjective¹

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ster-“rigid, stiff”
2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*sturnijaz“angry, astonished, shocked”
3. Old English · inherited fromstyrne“stern, grave, strict, austere, hard, severe, cruel”
4. Middle English · inherited fromstern
5. English todaystern

From 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”).

stern · noun, verb²

1. Old Frisian · derived fromstiarne“rudder”
2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*stiurijaną
3. Old Norse · derived fromstjórn“control, steering”
4. Middle English · inherited fromsterne
5. English todaystern

Inherited from Middle English sterne, 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. The sense referring to a management post alludes to the fact that a sailing ship's captain would often stand on an aft deck.

stern · noun³

From a variant of tern.

Stern · proper noun⁴

* As a German and Jewish surname, from the noun Stern (“star”). This was also borrowed into various Slavic languages such as Serbo-Crotian and Slovenian. * As an English surname, from the adjective stern.

Words from the same roots