stum

English

Etymology

From Dutch stom (“unfermented”, literally “mute; dull”). Compare French vin muet; German stummer Wein.

Pronunciation

Noun

stum (countable and uncountable, plural stums)

  1. Unfermented grape juice; must.
    • Ben Jonson
      Let our wines, without mixture of stum, be all fine.
    • John Dryden
      And with thy stum ferment their fainting cause.
  2. Wine revived by new fermentation, resulting from the admixture of must.
    • 1664, Samuel Butler, Hudibras; with notes by T. R. Nash, Volume 1, published 1835, Part II, Canto 1, page 265:
      Drink ev'ry letter on't in stum,
      And make it brisk champaign become.[footnotes 1]

Verb

stum (third-person singular simple present stums, present participle stumming, simple past and past participle stummed)

  1. (transitive) to ferment
  2. (transitive) to renew (wine etc.) by mixing must with it and raising a new fermentation
    • Floyer
      We stum our wines to renew their spirits.

References

  1. ↑ T. R. Nash disputed the sense, noting "Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, has quoted these lines to prove that stum may signify wine revived by a new fermentation, but, perhaps, it means no more than figuratively to say that the rememberance of the widow's charms could turn bad wine into good, foul muddy wine, into clear sparkling champaigne."

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for stum in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Anagrams

Danish

Adjective

stum (neuter stumt, plural and definite singular attributive stumme)

  1. mute, not possessing the ability of speech
  2. temporarily unable to speak due to strong emotion
  3. not involving speech
    De så ikke min stumme bøn.
    They did not see my silent plea.

Latvian

Verb

stum

  1. 2nd person singular present indicative form of stumt
  2. 2nd person singular imperative form of stumt

Swedish

Pronunciation

  • Audio(file)

Adjective

stum

  1. mute; unable to speak
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