▪ I. † stam, n.1 Obs.
Also 4 stampne, stamyn(e.
[ME. *stamne, a. ON. stamn stem, prow (also applied to the poop); for the ulterior etymology see stem n. Cf. forestam.]
The stem or prow of a ship. Also attrib. in stampneloker (? locker n.1)
| 1336–7 Acc. Exch. K.R. 19/31 m. 5 Et in vno ligno empto pro. 1. Stampneloker. Ibid., In ij leopardis emptis..cum puturacione eorundem positis super les stampnes. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 486 On stamyn ho stod. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 3659 [They] Standis styffe one the stamyne, steris one aftyre. Ibid. 3664 So stowttly þe forsterne one þe stam hyttis. 1513 Douglas æneis viii. xii. 22 A crovne wyth stammys sik as schippis beris [L. tempora navali fulgent rostrata corona]. |
▪ II. stam, n.2 dial.
(stæm)
[Belongs to stam v.; possibly cogn. w. OE. stamm adj., stammering: see stammer v.]
A state of bewilderment.
| 1638 W. Lisle Heliodorus ii. 32 O, then in what a stam Was theeuish, barb'rous, loue-sicke, angrie minde, That how to wreak his wrath could no way finde. 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 143 To break off from this so great a stamme to the mind. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia. |
▪ III. stam, n.3 dial.
(stæm)
Also stom, staum.
[Related to stem n.]
A stem or stalk; a trunk or stump of a tree.
| 1839 Sir G. C. Lewis Heref. Gloss., Stam, or Stom, a stem. 1854 A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss., The bean staums run in my hand. 1892 ‘Son of the Marshes’ Within Hour of Lond. xi. 209 No moss grows on their trunks, or ‘stams’, as they are generally called in woodland dialect. |
b. attrib. stam-wood, the roots of trees removed from the earth.
| 1681 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (ed. 3) 332 Stamwood, the Roots of Trees grubbed up. 1851 Sternberg Dial. Northampt. 104. |
▪ IV. stam, v. dial.
(stæm)
[See stam n.2]
trans. To astonish; to overcome with amazement. Hence ˈstamming ppl. a., fine, excellent; ˈstammingly adv., extremely, excellently.
| 1578 In Prayse rare beauty in T. Proctor Gorg. Gallery H iiij, They with their Muses could not haue pronounst the fame, Of D. faire Dame, lo, a staming stock, the cheefe of natures frame. a 1800 Pegge Suppl. Grose, Stam'd, amazed. Norf. and Suff. 1814 in Glyde New Suffolk Garl. (1866) 271 How stammin cow'd 'tis now-a-days. Ibid., We're all stammenly set up about that there corn bill. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia s.v. Stam, It is a stamming story indeed! 1893 in Cozens-Hardy Broad Norf. 7 Her wise husband would perhaps be stammed that she should be so careless. |