Etymology: Old English stęmn , stęfn strong masculine (for the corresponding forms in continental Germanic see stem n.²) < Germanic *stamni-z; a parallel and synonymous Germanic formation (*stamno-z ) is represented by (Middle) Low German, (Middle) Dutch, Old High German, Middle High German stam (modern German Stamm ) masculine, trunk or stem of a tree (so Swedish stam , Danish stamme , < German); also by Old Saxon stamn (? masculine), Old Norse stamn , stafn neuter, which are recorded only in the derived sense = stem n.² The word is probably < the root *sta- to stand v. + -mn- suffix; compare Greek στάμνος earthen jar (? lit. ‘standing vessel’). The Old Norse and Old English stofn (see stoven n.) tree-stump is probably unconnected. It is remarkable that between the Old English period and the 16th cent. only a single instance of the word has been found (quot. 1338 at sense 1b).

Etymology: Old English stęmn , stęfn strong masculine (also stęfna weak masculine or stęfne weak feminine), originally a specific application of stem n.¹ in the sense ‘tree-trunk’. The nautical use occurs (sometimes with differentiated form) in several Germanic languages: Old Frisian stevene (West Frisian stjûwn , North Frisian stēven ), Dutch, Low German steven (whence German steven ; Middle Dutch had also steve ), Old Saxon stamn , Old Norse stafn , stamn (masculine) (whence Middle English stam n.¹), Danish stavn, also (? from Low German) stævn, Swedish (? from Low German) stäf. After the Old English period the native word does not occur in our quots. until late in the 15th cent., though the 14th and 15th centuries have several examples of stam n.¹ (from the equivalent Old Norse form) and of the compound forestam n. The native form must of course have been preserved in oral tradition alongside the Scandinavian form, which disappears in the 15th cent. A few examples of steven n.⁴ are found in Scots writers of the 16th cent.; whether this descends from Old English stęfn, or a late adoption < Low German or Dutch, cannot be determined.