stammen

Stammen is a Dutch word with multiple related meanings. As a plural noun, stammen is the plural of stam, meaning stem or trunk. In botany and horticulture, de stam is the main axis of a plant or tree that supports leaves and reproductive organs; stammers? The plural stammen refers to multiple such stems or to the trunks of several trees.

In anthropology and ethnography, stammen denotes a tribe or clan—a grouping of people believed to be descended from a common ancestor. The term is used in historical and ethnographic contexts to describe social and political units based on lineage.

As a verb, stammen means to originate or derive from. It is used with uit or from to indicate source, such as Dit concept stamt uit de negentiende eeuw (This concept dates from the nineteenth century) or Zij stammen uit Frankrijk (They originate from France). The verb is irregular in the present tense: ik stamm, jij stamt, hij stamt, wij stammen.

In linguistics, stam refers to the stem of a word—the form to which inflection is attached. The plural form krijgen is stammen when discussing multiple word stems. While the primary use of stam is botanical or ethnographic, the term also appears in discussions of etymology and word formation to describe the base form underlying related words.