Adjective (comparative sterner, superlative sternest)
- Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
- Grim and forbidding in appearance.
Origin From Middle English stern, sterne, sturne, from Old English styrne (“stern, grave, strict, austere, hard, severe, cruel"), from Proto-Germanic *sturnijaz (“angry, astonished, shocked"), from Proto-Indo-European *ster-, *ter- (“rigid, stiff"). Cognate with Scots stern (“bold, courageous, fierce, resolute"), Old High German stornÄ“n (“to be astonished"), Dutch stuurs (“glum, austere"), Swedish stursk (“insolent").
Origin Most likely from Old Norse stjórn (“control, steering"), related to stýra (“to steer"), from Proto-Germanic *stiurijanÄ…, whence also English steer. Also possibly from Old Frisian stiarne (“rudder"), from the same Germanic root.