strem

• streme, streem, streeme
• stræm (Early Middle English)

Inherited from Old English strēam, from Proto-West Germanic *straum, from Proto-Germanic *straumaz.

• IPA^(key): /strɛ̝ːm/
• Rhymes: -ɛːm

strem (plural stremes)

1. A stream or river; a flowing path of water:
   1. A current; the flow of a stream.
   2. A river's course; the path of a river.
2. A waterbody; an accumulation of water:
   • a. 1333, Alcuin, “Poem 22: Quomodo se habet homo?; Fol. 204v”, in William Herebert, transl., Opera (British Library MS. Add. 46919)‎^[1], Hereford; republished as The Works of William Herebert, OFM (Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse), [Ann Arbor]: University of Michigan, a. 2018:

     Also þe lanterne in þe wynd þat sone is aqueynt, / Ase sparkle in þe se þat sone is adreynt, / Ase vom in þe strem þat sone is tothwith, / Ase smoke in þe lift þat passet oure sith.

     Like a lantern in the wind that soon gets quenched, / Like a glimmer in the sea that soon gets drenched / Like foam in the water that soon is dispersed, / Like smoke in the sky that passes [in] our sight.

   1. A sea; a large, continuous body of water.
      • 1387–1400, [Geoffrey] Chaucer, “Here Bygynneth the Book of the Tales of Caunt́burẏ”, in The Tales of Caunt́bury (Hengwrt Chaucer; Peniarth Manuscript 392D), Aberystwyth, Ceredigion: National Library of Wales, published [c. 1400–1410], →OCLC, folio 7, verso:

        She hadde paſſed / manẏ a straunge strem / At Rome she hadde been / and at Boloẏne / In Galẏce at Seınt Iame / and at Coloẏne […]

        She'd crossed many foreign seas; / she'd been in Rome and in Boulogne-sur-Mer, / at Santiago de Compostela and in Cologne […]

   2. (law) Maritime territory or possessions.
3. A flow or issuing of liquid (especially water)
4. A beam or ray, especially of light.
5. (rare) A standard; a flag indicating nationality.

• This word is not found in bynames recorded in the subsidy rolls of Northern England from 1290-1350, is only found in Yorkshire and Lancashire in the Survey of English Dialects (suggesting that it has spread from more southerly dialects), and is relatively rare in literary Northern Middle English, suggesting that it is not native to Northern Middle English (the usual words for "stream" were probably bek, brok, or in County Durham and Northumberland, burne).

• stremen
• stremere

• English: stream
• Scots: stream, strem, streme, streim, streym
• Yola: streem

• “strēm, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 27 November 2018.
• Kristensson, Gillis (1979), “A Piece of Middle English Word Geography”, in English Studies, volume 60, number 3, Routledge, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 256-257.