Stemming

How to spell stemming

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce stemming

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does stemming mean?

1. verbOriginating from or being caused by a particular source.
2. verbStopping or restraining the flow or spread of something.

Stemming in a sentence

• Most of the delays were stemming from a single faulty supplier.

• The new policy is aimed at stemming the rise in late payments.

• Her confidence on stage was stemming from years of quiet practice.

• Sandbags were stacked along the bank, stemming the rising water.

Where does stemming come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Stemming is the present participle of the verb 'stem', which actually carries two distinct origins that English has long since braided together. The 'originate from' sense traces back to the noun 'stem', the Old English 'stemn' or 'stefn', meaning the main upright stalk of a plant or tree, a sturdy Germanic word with cousins across the North Sea languages; to say a problem 'stems from' something pictures it growing out of a root, just as a branch grows from a trunk. The 'hold back' sense, as in stemming a flood, comes instead from the Old Norse 'stemma', meaning to stop, dam, or staunch, brought into English by Scandinavian settlers in the medieval north. Speakers eventually treated the two as one verb because the images overlap so neatly: something rising from a base, and something pressed firmly against a flow. The doubled 'm' in the written form is purely mechanical: a short stressed vowel followed by a single consonant doubles that consonant before the '-ing' ending, which is exactly the spelling trap, since 'steming' looks plausible but is wrong.

How the word is built

• stem (main stalk; also to stop)
• -m- (doubled consonant before suffix)
• -ing (present participle)