Stem Families

Anybody who studies stems knows that AEINRST is one of the best racks you can get. Not only do the letters by themselves make 9 anagrams, the letters can combine with 20 of 26 letters to make an 8 letter bingo. Furthermore, if any of the letters are blanks, you have even more opportunities.

This final thought intrigued me. What are the blanagrams of AEINRST? In other words, what would you get if you replaced any of the letters in AEINRST with a blank?

The stems they signify would look like this:

?EINRST = INSERT
A?INRST = TRAINS
AE?NRST = ASTERN or STERNA
AEI?RST = SATIRE
AEIN?ST = TISANE
AEINR?T = RETAIN or RETINA etc.
AEINRS? = ARSINE

Actually, you would find some great 6 to make 7 stems. Many of them are listed in the most important ten stems to know. TISANE may be the most inportant; SATIRE and RETAIN are 2nd and 3rd. ARSINE is close behind. ASTERN and INSERT make the top ten in most lists.

So one could think of these seven stems as belonging to a "stem family", (which I think is a term that I've coined, but maybe somebody else beat me to it). The grandfather or name of the family is the seven letter stem. In this case, it is RETSINA or RETAINS. And the siblings are the six letter stems. ARSINE is sister to TRAINS or brother to SATIRE etc, etc.

So I've been thinking that this can aid one's stem study.

The problem with stem study is that many experts recommend first learning the most useful ten stems. Then after that, they recommend learning the top 100 stems. To me, that's like setting a babe out into the wilderness. How can one possibly organize all those stems in one's head? Remember there's also anamonic phrases to learn, as well as the words themselves.

So, recognizing the stem families could be useful. So after RETSINA, I've been looking at this other family:

Father= REGINAS (or AEGINRS)

Siblings:

?EGINRS = SINGER
A?GINRS = GRAINS
AE?INRS = ARSINE
AEG?NRS = ANGERS
AEGI?RS = SAGIER
AEGIN?S = EASING
AEGINR? = REGINA or REGAIN

So many good stems. So many good words to know.

So as I print out the stem lists from Metagrams, I can put the father on top of a stack that contains seven siblings. This may help me keep the stem study straight in my head.

I think if I pick out some families who don't overlap too much, then I could learn the top 100 stems in quick order.