Also 6 styrpe, 6–7 stirpe. Also in L. form STIRPS. [ad. L. stirpem (nom. stirps, stirpes, stirpis), stock, stem (lit. and fig.). = STEM sb., STOCK sb., in various figurative senses.]
1. The stock of a family; a line of descent; a race, clan or sept; the descendants of a common ancestor. Also abstr., pedigree, lineage. Now somewhat rare.
The word became obsolete in the 17th c., and reappears (in affected literary use) about the middle of the 19th c.
1502. Arnolde, Chron., 60 b/1. Abdalazys Soldan of babilon,… emperor of the worlde and of ye feith of machamet,… lyuylly [read lynylly] descendid from the stirp of prophettis.
c. 1530. Crt. of Love, 16. No termys digne unto her excellence, So is she sprong of noble stirpe and high.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. IV., 249 b. His sequele and lineal succession, as the verie Images and carnall portratures, of his stirpe, line and stemme, naturally discended.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 911. The Lady Margaret liyng in Flaunders,… ioyfully receyued and welcommed mee, as the onely type and garland of her noble stirpe and linage.
1569. Ir. Act 11 Eliz., c. 4 (1621), 304. Fiue persons of the best and eldest of euerie stirpe or nation of the Irishrie … shall be bound to bring in … all idle persons of their surname.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Nobility (Arb.), 191. Democracies … are commonly more quiet … then where there are Stirps of Nobles. Ibid. (a. 1626), New Atl., 25. They haue some few Stirps of Iewes, yet remaining amongst them, whom they leaue to their owne Religion.
a. 1635. Naunton, Fragm. Reg. (Arb.), 14. Now leaving her stirp, I come to her Person.
1654. Vilvain, Enchir. Epigr., IV. xli. 71 b. Ther were two Kings of English stirp descended, Who when thos Danes died to the Throne ascended.
1665. J. Webb, Stone-Heng (1725), 152. People … of another Stirp.
1854. Thoreau, Walden, 283. Still grows the vivacious lilac … the last of that stirp, sole survivor of that family.
1869. Lowell, Under Willows, 141. Loved by some maid Of royal stirp.
1896. Kipling, Seven Seas, Song of Cities, xiii. The northern stirp beneath the southern skies—I build a Nation for an Empire’s need.
1906. C. Mercier, Scheme of Educ. Comm. Care of Feeble Minded, 3. If the community is dispersed, not only the individual, but the stirp is exterminated.
† b. Ancestral stock. Obs.
1573. Lloid, Pilgr. Princes (1586), 76. Auerni boasted of their stirpe and stocke, the ancient Troians.
† 2. A scion, member of a family. Obs.
1574. J. Jones, Nat. Beg. Growing & Living Things, 49. The worthy and famous Stirpe of your auncient, most honorable, and trustie Stock.
1629. L. O[wen], Speculum Iesuit., 30. Another Alexander Farnesius a Cardinall of Rome, a wicked stirp of that stocke.
¶ 3. Used for: ? Chief representative. Obs.
1513. J. T., Bradshaw’s St. Werburge, Prol. 2. Alas, of Chestre ye monkes haue lost a treasure, Henry Bradsha the styrpe of eloquence!
4. Eugenics. (See quot.)
1875. Galton, in Contemp. Rev., XXVII. 81. I beg permission to use, in a special sense, the short word ‘stirp,’… to express the sum-total of the germs, gemmules, or whatever they may be called, which are to be found … in the newly fertilized ovum—that is, in the earliest pre-embryonic stage—from which time it receives nothing further from its parents, not even from its mother, than mere nutriment…. This word ‘stirp’ … is equally applicable to the contents of buds. Ibid., 84. As the stirp whence the child sprang can only be half the size of the combined stirps of his two parents, it follows that [etc.].
1910. E. R. Lankester, in 19th Cent., Sept., 490. Certain variations in the quasi-independent ‘stirp’ or ‘germ substance’ of the reproductive egg-cells and sperm-cells.
Hence Stirpal a., pertaining to a ‘stirp’ (sense 4).
1875. Galton, in Contemp. Rev., XXVII. 82. Organization wholly depends on the mutual affinities and repulsions of the separate germs; first in their stirpal, and subsequently during all the processes of development.
