stern, sterne, sturne

[A. S. styrne=stern; styrnan to be stern or severe. From the same root as Icel. stórr =large; Ger. starr =stiff, rigid; Icel. stúra gloom, despair.] 1. Severe of countenance; austere, rigid, gloomy, grim, frowning, hard; fixed with an aspect of severity and authority. "Why look you still so stern and tragical?" Shakesp.: Henry VI., Pt. I., iii. 1. 2. Severe of manners; harsh, hard, hardhearted, changed conditions of life. Thus most raptorial pitile . (Of persons.) birds from the tropics do not lay fertile eggs in captivity in temperate climates, and many exotic plants brought to England have worthle pollen. Sometimes a little more or le water will decide whether or not a plant will seed. There are various degrees of sterility in first cro es and hybrids; occasionally there is an absence of some element nece ary to reproduction, thus in the more sterile kinds of hybrid rhododendrons pollen is wanting. ( Darwin .) 2. Barrenne , unfruitfulne ; want or absence of power of producing young, as of animals. II. Fig .: Barrenne of ideas or sentiments; want of fertility or the power of producing sentiment. "One cannot ascribe this to any sterility of expre ion, but to the genius of his times." - Pope : E ay on Homer. stěr-il-i-zā-tion, *ster-Il-i-sā'-tion, s . [Eng. steriliz(e); -ation.] The act of making sterile, barren, or unproductive. "These experiments destroy any hope of a practical result being obtained by sterilisation from cold.-London Daily Telegraph. IMG:content-0285.png:[blocks in formation] 2. To deprive of fecundity, or the power of producing young.