stigma
(ˈstɪgmə)
Pl. stigmata (ˈstɪgmətə) or stigmas (ˈstɪgməz). See also stigme.
[a. L. stigma, a. Gr. στίγµα mark made by a pointed instrument, brand, f. root *stig- in στίζειν (:—*stigy-) to prick, puncture: see stick v.]
1. A mark made upon the skin by burning with a hot iron (rarely, by cutting or pricking), as a token of infamy or subjection; a brand. Also fig.
| 1596 Harington Metam. Ajax C 2 b, Circumcision..impressing a painefull stigma, or caracter in Gods peculiar people. 1645 Rutherford Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845) 256 When a burning iron is put on the face of a evil-doer, it leaveth behind it a brand, or a stigma. 1778 Sk. Tabernacle Frames 35 His flinty Front my Stigma shou'd retain. 1863 W. H. Russell Diary North & S. I. 246 The advertisements for runaway negroes,..the description of the stigmata on their persons—whippings and brandings, scars and cuts. 1879 Farrar St. Paul (1883) 471 He was branded..with the stigmata of the Lord Jesus [cf. Gal. vi. 17]. 1891 Meredith One of Conq. i, He..thankfully received his runaway hat,..making light of the muddy stigmas imprinted by the pavement. |
2. fig. A mark of disgrace or infamy; a sign of severe censure or condemnation, regarded as impressed on a person or thing; a ‘brand’.
| a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. i. xvi. §4 (1622) 168 They set a stigma, and a note vpon all that impugne it. a 1623 Buck Rich. III, ii. (1646) 63 All such slaughters [were] from thence call'd Bartelmies..in a perpetuall Stigma of that Butchery. 1777 Chatham Sp. on Addr. 18 Nov., I..call upon your Lordships..to stamp upon it an indelible stigma of the public abhorrence. 1809 R. K. Porter Trav. Sk. Russia & Sweden (1813) II. 273 (Index) Houghton gallery, purchased by Catherine, and added to the collection at the Hermitage; a stigma on this country. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 410 Moderate politicians..were unwilling to put a stigma on a man..distinguished both by his abilities and by his amiable qualities. 1882 J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. II. 172 Branded with the stigma of illegitimacy. |
b. A distinguishing mark or characteristic (of a bad or objectionable kind); in Path. a sign of some specific disorder, as hysteria.
| 1859 Sala Tw. round Clock (1861) 116 Among a family of blooming girls one who already wears the stigmata of old maidenhood. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 889 The stigmas of a morphinist are plausibility and disorderliness. 1907 W. C. Krauss tr. E. Mendel's Psychiatry 84 Stigmata of Degeneration. 1916 A. Bennett These Twain 38 His incorrigible vulgarity of a small manufacturer who displays everywhere the stigmata of petty commerce. |
3. pl. Marks resembling the wounds on the crucified body of Christ, said to have been supernaturally impressed on the bodies of certain saints and other devout persons.
Sometimes extended to other marks, as crosses, sacred names, etc., supposed to be supernaturally impressed.
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. i. 24 St. Frances with his inuisible Stigmata. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 5 Aug. 1670, Mons{supr} Monconys..was by no means satisfied with y⊇ stigmata of those Nunns, because they were so shy of letting him scrape the letters, which were Jesus, Maria, Joseph. 1841 Earl of Shrewsbury Let. to A.L. Phillipps 6 Her confessor then told us that she had the stigmata on her hands, feet, and side. 1880 A. T. Drane St. Catherine of Siena 369 During the lifetime of the Saint the stigmas remained invisible, but were not so after her death. |
b. nonce-use. Ineffaceable stains of blood, supposed to remain on the floor of a room where a murder has been committed.
| 1828 Scott F.M. Perth Introd., If any Seneschal..had, by means of paint,..endeavoured to palm upon posterity supposititious stigmata,..the impostor would have chosen the Queen's cabinet and the bedroom for the scene of his trick. |
4. Path. A morbid spot, dot, or point on the skin, esp. one which bleeds spontaneously.
| 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 128 The eye [of a wolf] applied extenuats the glaucoma and stigma's. 1877 F. T. Roberts Theory & Pract. Med. (ed. 3) I. 37 Cutaneous hæmorrhages assume the form of..stigmata, or minute points, petechiæ, or rounded spots, and vibices or lines. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 180 The distended capillaries on the cheek, the so-called ‘venous stigmata,’ which are attributable to alcoholic excess. |
5. Zool. and Anat. a. Each of the respiratory openings or breathing-pores in insects and other invertebrates; a spiracle. Also applied to other small openings or pores, as that of the pneumatocyst in Hydrozoa. (Pl. usually stigmata.)
| 1747 Gentl. Mag. XVII. 122/1 Such as have need of respiration have tracheas and stigmas, which admit..as much air as is..needful for the insect. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. VIII. 13 The stigmata, as they are called; or those holes on the sides of its body, through which the animal [sc. caterpillar] is supposed to breathe. 1832 Griffith tr. Cuvier XIV. 3 note, In the crickets..and the libellulæ, the sides of the metathorax are each provided with a stigma. 1861–2 Le Conte Classif. Coleoptera N. Amer. i. Introd. p. xviii, The prothoracic breathing pore or stigma or spiracle. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 103 Ascidian..The longitudinal vessels..inclose the stigmata or apertures which lead from the cavity of the pharynx to the peribranchial or atrial cavity. |
b. The part of an ovisac or Graafian follicle where it ruptures to discharge the ovum.
| 1890 Coues Ornithol. 327 Such rupture of the Graafian follicle (ovisac)..occurs along a line where the..blood-vessels..upon its surface appear to be wanting, called the stigma. |
c. A natural spot or mark, as one formed by enlargement of a nervure on the fore-wings of certain insects (pterostigma), or the pigment- or eye-spot of an infusorian.
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. 377. 1871 Staveley Brit. Insects 153 On the front margin of the fore-wing [of Hymenoptera] is a thickened spot or stigma. 1895 D. Sharp Insects i. 534 The Proctotrypidae..frequently have a pigmented spot or stigma on the front wings. |
6. Bot. That part of the pistil in flowering plants which receives the pollen in impregnation, of very various form, situated either directly on the ovary (sessile) or at the summit (more rarely the side) of the style. Also applied to an analogous structure in cryptogams. (Pl. usually stigmas.)
| 1753 Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v. Seseli, The stigmata are obtuse. 1812 New Bot. Gard. I. 26 The styles acuminate, and the stigmas obtuse. 1862 Darwin Contriv. Orchids fertilised ix. (1877) 249 The viscid secretion of the stigmas of some Orchids. 1882 Vines tr. Sachs' Bot. 343 The female organs [in Cryptogams]..called archegonia, are, when..capable of being fertilised, flask-shaped bodies..prolonged into a long neck... A row of cells..passes through the neck..and is continued as far as the cells which form the so-called ‘Stigma.’ |
7. In Ellis's Stigmatic Geometry, A point whose movement in a certain plane is determined by that of another point (the index) in the same plane.
| 1863 [see stigmatic B. 4]. 1864 Rep. Brit. Assoc. ii. 2 If H and K be fixed stigmata. Ibid., M is the index and P the stigma of a stigmatic straight line. |