stirps

American  

[sturps] / stɜrps /

noun

plural

stirpes

1. a stock; family or branch of a family; line of descent.

2. Law. a person from whom a family is descended.

3. Biology Now Rare. a family, superfamily, or permanent variety.

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stirps British  

/ stɜːps /

noun

1. genealogy a line of descendants from an ancestor; stock or strain

2. botany a race or variety, esp one in which the characters are maintained by cultivation

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Etymology

Origin of stirps

1675–85; < Latin: rootstock, trunk

Example Sentences

But for democracies, they need it not; and they are commonly more quiet, and less subject to sedition, than where there are stirps of nobles.

From The Essays of Francis Bacon by Bacon, Francis

They do not refuse the knowledge of other colonies of other stirps and origins, and they even combine in temporary alliance with them.

From April Hopes by Howells, William Dean

The stanzas of Michele Ferno of Milan conclude: Borgia stirps: bos: atque Ceres transcendit Olympo, Cantabunt nomen sæcula cuncta suum; which turned out to be a true prophecy.

From Lucretia Borgia According to Original Documents and Correspondence of Her Day by Gregorovius, Ferdinand

He was a Jew and circumcised; for they have some few stirps of Jews yet remaining among them, whom they leave to their own religion.

From Ideal Commonwealths by More, Thomas, Sir, Saint

I must not omit the inscription on the south front: "Omnipotens faxet, stirps Sunderlandia sedes Incolet has placide, et tueatur jura parentum, Lite vacans, donec fluctus formica marinos Ebibat et totum testudo perambulet orbem!"

From Notes and Queries, Number 189, June 11, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Bell, George

Related Words

• clan
• descent
• genealogy
• origin
• pedigree