Part 777

{ Stel*ler"i*dan (?), Stel`ler*id"e*an (?), } n. (Zoöl.) A starfish, or brittle star.

Stel*lif"er*ous (?), a. [L. stellifer; stella star + ferre to bear.] Having, or abounding with, stars.

Stel"li*form (?), a. [L. stella a star + -form.] Like a star; star-shaped; radiated.

Stel"li*fy (?), v. t. [L. stella a star + -fy.] To turn into a star; to cause to appear like a star; to place among the stars, or in heaven. [Obs. or R.] B. Jonson.

Stel"lion (?), n. [L. stellio a newt having starlike spots on its back, fr. stella a star.] (Zoöl.) A lizard (Stellio vulgaris), common about the Eastern Mediterranean among ruins. In color it is olive- green, shaded with black, with small stellate spots. Called also hardim, and star lizard.

Stel"lion*ate (?), n. [L. stellionatus cozenage, trickery, fr. stellio a newt, a crafty, knavish person.] (Scots & Roman Law) Any fraud not distinguished by a more special name; -- chiefly applied to sales of the same property to two different persons, or selling that for one's own which belongs to another, etc. Erskine.

Stel"lu*lar (?), a. [L. stellula, dim. of stella a star.] 1. Having the shape or appearance of little stars; radiated.

2. Marked with starlike spots of color.

Stel"lu*late (?), a. (Bot.) Minutely stellate.

||Stel`ma*top"o*da (?), n. pl. [NL., fr. Gr. &?; a block, post + &?;, ||&?;, eye + &?;, &?;, foot.] (Zoöl.) Same as Gymnolæmata.

Ste*log"ra*phy (?), n. [Gr. &?; a post, slab, pillar + -graphy: cf. Gr. &?; an inscription on a tablet.] The art of writing or inscribing characters on pillars. [R.] Stackhouse.

{ Stem (?), Steem (?) }, v. i. To gleam. [Obs.]

His head bald, that shone as any glass, . . . stemed as a furnace of a leed [caldron].

Chaucer.

{ Stem, Steem }, n. A gleam of light; flame. [Obs.]

Stem (stm), n. [AS. stemn, stefn, stæfn; akin to OS. stamn the stem of a ship, D. stam stem, steven stem of a ship, G. stamm stem, steven stem of a ship, Icel. stafn, stamn, stem of a ship, stofn, stomn, stem, Sw. stam a tree trunk, Dan. stamme. Cf. Staff, Stand.] 1. The principal body of a tree, shrub, or plant, of any kind; the main stock; the part which supports the branches or the head or top.

After they are shot up thirty feet in length, they spread a very large top, having no bough nor twig in the trunk or the stem.

Sir W. Raleigh.

The lowering spring, with lavish rain, Beats down the slender stem and breaded grain.

Dryden.

2. A little branch which connects a fruit, flower, or leaf with a main branch; a peduncle, pedicel, or petiole; as, the stem of an apple or a cherry.

3. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors. "All that are of noble stem." Milton.

While I do pray, learn here thy stem And true descent.

Herbert.

4. A branch of a family.

This is a stem Of that victorious stock.

Shak.

5. (Naut.) A curved piece of timber to which the two sides of a ship are united at the fore end. The lower end of it is scarfed to the keel, and the bowsprit rests upon its upper end. Hence, the forward part of a vessel; the bow.