What is "stern"

Stern \Stern\, n. [Icel. stj[=o]rn a steering, or a doubtful AS. ste['o]rn. [root]166. See Steer, v. t.]

1. The helm or tiller of a vessel or boat; also, the rudder. [Obs.]
   --Chaucer.

2. (Naut.) The after or rear end of a ship or other vessel, or of a boat; the part opposite to the stem, or prow.

3. Fig.: The post of management or direction.

   And sit chiefest stern of public weal.
   --Shak.

4. The hinder part of anything.
   --Spenser.

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

   By the stern. (Naut.) See By the head, under By.

Stern \Stern\, n. [AS. stearn a kind of bird. See Starling.] (Zo["o]l.) The black tern.

Stern \Stern\, a. [Compar. Sterner; superl. Sternest.] [OE. sterne, sturne, AS. styrne; cf. D. stuurish stern, Sw. stursk refractory. [root]166.] Having a certain hardness or severity of nature, manner, or aspect; hard; severe; rigid; rigorous; austere; fixed; unchanging; unrelenting; hence, serious; resolute; harsh; as, a sternresolve; a stern necessity; a stern heart; a stern gaze; a stern decree.

The sterne wind so loud gan to rout.
--Chaucer.

I would outstare the sternest eyes that look.
--Shak.

When that the poor have cried, C[ae]sar hath wept; Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
--Shak.

Stern as tutors, and as uncles hard.
--Dryden.

These barren rocks, your stern inheritance.
--Wordsworth.

Syn: Gloomy; sullen; forbidding; strict; unkind; hard-hearted; unfeeling; cruel; pitiless.

Stern \Stern\, a. Being in the stern, or being astern; as, the stern davits. Stern board (Naut.), a going or falling astern; a loss of way in making a tack; as, to make a stern board. See Board, n., 8 (b) . Stern chase. (Naut.)

1. See under Chase, n.

2. A stern chaser.

   Stern chaser (Naut.), a cannon placed in a ship's stern, pointing backward, and intended to annoy a ship that is in pursuit.

   Stern fast (Naut.), a rope used to confine the stern of a ship or other vessel, as to a wharf or buoy.

   Stern frame (Naut.), the framework of timber forms the stern of a ship.

   Stern knee. See Sternson.

   Stern port (Naut.), a port, or opening, in the stern of a ship.

   Stern sheets (Naut.), that part of an open boat which is between the stern and the aftmost seat of the rowers, -- usually furnished with seats for passengers.

   Stern wheel, a paddle wheel attached to the stern of the steamboat which it propels.

Old English styrne "severe, strict, grave, hard, cruel," from Proto-Germanic *sternijaz (cognates: Middle High German sterre, German starr "stiff," störrig "obstinate;" Gothic andstaurran "to be stiff;" Old Norse stara; Old English starian "to look or gaze upon"), from PIE root *ster- (1) "rigid, stiff" (see stereo-). Related: Sternly; sternness.

early 13c., "hind part of a ship; steering gear of a ship," probably from a Scandinavian source, such as Old Norse stjorn "a steering," related to or derived from styra "to guide" (see steer (v.)). Or the word may come from Old Frisian stiarne "rudder," which also is related to steer (v.). Stern-wheeler as a type of steam-boat is from 1855, American English.

Etymology 1 a. Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner. Etymology 2

n. (context nautical English) The rear part or after end of a ship or vessel. Etymology 3

n. A bird, the black tern.

1. adj. of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor; forbidding in aspect; "an austere expression"; "a stern face" [syn: austere]

2. not to be placated or appeased or moved by entreaty; "grim determination"; "grim necessity"; "Russia's final hour, it seemed, approached with inexorable certainty"; "relentless persecution"; "the stern demands of parenthood" [syn: grim, inexorable, relentless, unappeasable, unforgiving, unrelenting]

3. severe and unremitting in making demands; "an exacting instructor"; "a stern disciplinarian"; "strict standards" [syn: strict, exacting]

1. n. the rear part of a ship [syn: after part, quarter, poop, tail]

2. United States concert violinist (born in Russia in 1920) [syn: Isaac Stern]

3. the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on; "he deserves a good kick in the butt"; "are you going to sit on your fanny and do nothing?" [syn: buttocks, nates, arse, butt, backside, bum, buns, can, fundament, hindquarters, hind end, keister, posterior, prat, rear, rear end, rump, seat, tail, tail end, tooshie, tush, bottom, behind, derriere, fanny, ass]

Stern is the name of two different but related arcade gaming companies: Stern Electronics, Inc. and Stern Pinball, Inc.

Stern (, German for "Star") is a weekly news magazine published in Hamburg, Germany, by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann.

Stern is a surname which can be of either German/ Yiddish or English language origin, though the former case predominates.

The English version of the surname was used as a nickname for someone who was strict, austere, harsh or stern in character. The German/Yiddish word Stern means " star".

The stern is the rear or aft part of a ship or boat.

Stern or Sterns may also refer to:

People:

• Stern (surname), a family name
• Stern Hu (born 1963), businessman arrested in China
• Stern John (born 1976), Trinidadian footballer

In education:

• New York University Stern School of Business
• Stern Conservatory, a former private music school in Berlin, now part of the Berlin University of the Arts
• Stern College for Women, an undergraduate women's college of Yeshiva University, located in Manhattan, New York

Businesses:

• Stern (magazine), a weekly German news magazine
• Stern (game company), two related arcade gaming companies
• Stern's, an American department store chain that served New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey
• Stern's Pickle Works, Farmindale, New York

Other uses:

• Stern Review, an influential report on global warming's economic effect
• Stern baronets, two extinct titles in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
• USS Stern (DE-187), a World War II destroyer escort
• Stern Hall (disambiguation)
• Stern House, a reconstructed building in Jerusalem
• The Sterns, an American Britpop band

The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite of the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Originally, the term only referred to the aft port section of the ship, but eventually came to refer to the entire back of a vessel. The stern end of a ship is indicated with a white navigation light at night.

Sterns on European and American wooden sailing ships began with two principal forms: the square or transom stern and the elliptical, fantail, or merchant stern, and were developed in that order. The hull sections of a sailing ship located before the stern were composed of a series of U-shaped rib-like frames set in a sloped or "cant" arrangement, with the last frame before the stern being called the fashion timber(s) or fashion piece(s), so called for "fashioning" the after part of the ship. This frame is designed to support the various beams that make up the stern.

In 1817 the British naval architect Sir Robert Seppings first introduced the concept of the round or circular stern. The square stern had been an easy target for enemy cannon, and could not support the weight of heavy stern chase guns. But Seppings' design left the rudder head exposed, and was regarded by many as simply ugly—no American warships were designed with such sterns, and the round stern was quickly superseded by the elliptical stern. The United States began building the first elliptical stern warship in 1820, a decade before the British. The USS Brandywine became the first sailing ship to sport such a stern. Though a great improvement over the transom stern in terms of its vulnerability to attack when under fire, elliptical sterns still had obvious weaknesses which the next major stern development—the iron-hulled cruiser stern—addressed far better and with much different materials.