stemma

[ stem-uh ]

noun

, plural stem·ma·ta [stem, -, uh, -t, uh].

1. ocellus ( def 1 ).

stemma

/ ˈstɛmə /

noun

1. a family tree; pedigree

Word History and Origins

Origin of stemma¹

1650–60; < New Latin < Greek stémma wreath, garland, derivative (with -ma noun suffix of result) from root of stéphos garland, stéphein to crown; from the crownlike appearance of ocelli in certain insects

Word History and Origins

Origin of stemma¹

C19: via Latin from Greek stemma garland, wreath, from stephein to crown, wreathe

Example Sentences

I looked around as he spoke and you could almost breathe the beauty: a piece of an Islamic column from Spain, an Italian Renaissance stemma, many Berber pots, pine cones and marble busts.

From New York Times

Because when they painted a stemma on the glaze they had still feudal faith in nobility, and when they painted a Madonna or Ecce Homo they had still childlike belief in divinity.

From Project Gutenberg

Its great faceted eyes inform it of all that happens to right and left; its three stemmata, like little ruby telescopes, explore the sky above its head.

From Project Gutenberg

Our simpler stemma indicates the presence of one rather than more than one such manuscript in the vicinity of Paris in the ninth or the tenth century and again in the fifteenth.

From Project Gutenberg

OCELLI.—The simple eyes or stemmata of insects, usually situated on the crown of the head between the great compound eyes.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• ancestry
• genetics
• lineage