steward
English
Etymology
From Middle English steward, stiward, from Old English stīweard, stiġweard (“steward, housekeeper, one who has the superintendence of household affairs, guardian”), from stiġ (“a wooden enclosure; house, hall”) + weard (“ward, guard, guardian, keeper”),[1][2] equivalent to sty + ward. Compare Icelandic stívarður (“steward”). More at sty, ward.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈstjuː.əd/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈstuɚd/
Audio (US) (file) - Hyphenation: stew‧ard
Noun
steward (plural stewards, feminine stewardess)
- A person who manages the property or affairs for another entity
- (historical) A chief administrator of a medieval manor.
- (nautical) A ship's officer who is in charge of making dining arrangements and provisions.
- 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:
- There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. Mail bags, so I understand, are being put on board. Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors. Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place.
- A flight attendant, especially male.
- A union member who is selected as a representative for fellow workers in negotiating terms with management.
- A person who has charge of buildings, grounds, and/or animals.
- Someone responsible for organizing an event
- Bartender
- A fiscal agent of certain bodies.
- a steward in a Methodist church
- A junior assistant in a Masonic lodge.
- (higher education) An officer who provides food for the students and superintends the kitchen; also, an officer who attends to the accounts of the students.
- (Scotland) A magistrate appointed by the crown to exercise jurisdiction over royal lands.
- 2001, The Innes Review:
- These lands must have been retained by some earlier Steward, perhaps Walter II (1204-41), when most of Erskine had been made into a fief for Henry, first known ancestor of the Erskine family.
- (information technology) Somebody who is responsible for managing a set of projects, products or technologies and how they affect the IT organization to which they belong.
- (motor racing) Person responsible for the arbitration of incidents at a motor racing event and whether or not fines/penalties should be issued for such incidents.
Usage notes
With regard to airlines, steward is usually distinguished from the more common and exclusively feminine stewardess in colloquial speech, while the gender-neutral flight attendant is usually preferred to both in formal contexts. The word "stewardess" is still commonly used in Singapore and Malaysia, but is now dated and considered sexist in the United States. For the sake of brevity, steward is sometimes treated as a gender-neutral term itself and applied to both male and female flight attendants.
Synonyms
- (medieval overseer): bailiff, provost
- (member of a flight crew): air steward, airline steward; see also flight attendant or cabin crew
- (union member): shop steward
- (person in charge of buildings, grounds, etc.): caretaker, custodian, keeper; groundskeeper (of estates)
Hyponyms
- (member of a flight crew) See flight attendant
Derived terms
Translations
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Verb
steward (third-person singular simple present stewards, present participle stewarding, simple past and past participle stewarded)
- To act as the steward or caretaker of (something)
- 2007 May 1, Richard G. Jones, “An Acting Governor’s Balancing Act: Taking the Lead Without Stepping on Toes”, in New York Times:
- Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski, a Democrat from Middlesex County, said, “It’s an uncomfortable situation,” but added that Mr. Codey is nevertheless “ably stewarding the state.”
References
- “American Heritage Dictionary”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), 2011 October 26 (last accessed), archived from the original on 27 September 2014
- “Oxford Online Dictionary”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), 2011 October 26 (last accessed), archived from the original on 10 June 2011
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˌsty.ʋɑrt/, /ˌsti.ʋɑrt/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: ste‧ward
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /stju.waʁd/, /sti.waʁd/, /sti.waʁt/
- (Canada) IPA(key): /stu.wœʁd/
Audio (file)
Further reading
- “steward”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Polish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈstju.art/
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -uart
- Syllabification: ste‧ward
Declension
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | steward | stewardzi/stewardowie/stewardy (deprecative) |
genitive | stewarda | stewardów |
dative | stewardowi | stewardom |
accusative | stewarda | stewardów |
instrumental | stewardem | stewardami |
locative | stewardzie | stewardach |
vocative | stewardzie | stewardzi/stewardowie/stewardy (deprecative) |
Further reading
- steward in Polish dictionaries at PWN
Romanian
Declension
Related terms
References
- steward in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)