stern
adjective
[ stəːn ]
• (of a person or their manner) serious and unrelenting, especially in the assertion of authority and exercise of discipline.
• "a smile transformed his stern face"
Similar:
serious,
unsmiling,
frowning,
poker-faced,
severe,
forbidding,
grim,
unfriendly,
sombre,
grave,
sober,
austere,
dour,
stony,
flinty,
steely,
unrelenting,
unyielding,
unforgiving,
unbending,
unsympathetic,
disapproving,
Rhadamanthine,
boot-faced,
Origin:
Old English styrne, probably from the West Germanic base of the verb stare.
stern
noun
• the rearmost part of a ship or boat.
• "he stood at the stern of the yacht"
Origin:
Middle English: probably from Old Norse stjórn ‘steering’, from stýra ‘to steer’.
