Make Your Point: STYMIE

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pronounce STYMIE:

STIGH me

connect this word to others:

If you're stymied, you're stumped, cornered, thwarted, hindered, foiled, or non_____ed ("at a standstill, unable to act").

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

(Source)

"Stymie" arose around the year 1857, in the game of golf.

To stymie another player is to put your ball directly between theirs and the hole, which ruins their straight shot, forcing them to either putt around you or thwack their ball into the air over yours.

According to Golf Heritage, while stymies made games exciting—they could happen by chance, or on purpose—they were also unfair, annoying, and ultimately banned in 1952. Now if a player has stymied you, they move their ball out of your way so you can take your shot.

But the move was popular enough back in its day that by 1902, we were using "stymie" figuratively to mean "to block, to get in the way, to stop a process from happening, or to stop someone from doing what they wanted to do."

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Verb, the transitive kind: "Hand-washing can stymie the spread of disease;" "We need laws that stymie companies from exploiting their customers."

Other forms:

The other verb forms are "stymied" and "stymieing."

Yup, "stymieing" looks like it's spelled wrong, but that's how dictionaries list it. Writers tend to avoid it, and I don't blame them!

how to use it:

Although "stymie" probably sounded slangy back in the early 1900s, it's since earned a place formal, scholarly texts; today, it sounds serious and academic.

We talk about people stymieing things, or about decisions, actions, habits, events, conditions, and natural phenomena that stymie things.

Sometimes that's a good thing, like when we manage to stymie fatigue, burnout, climate change, and diseases and their spread. Often it's a bad thing, like when people and their decisions stymie aid, support, progress, creativity, innovation, development, projects, and efforts.

Occasionally we talk about stymieing a person, stymieing a person from doing something, or stymieing a process from happening.

examples:

"Very high levels of heat stress and soaring humidity can stymie the body's natural cooling system—sweating—a disruption that can cause heat exhaustion and heat stroke."
— Andrea Thompson, Scientific American, 14 October 2021

"Twists are difficult on television shows, which go on for so much longer than movies—where twists flourish—and thus [television shows] stymie the meticulous plotting required for a good twist."
— Willa Paskin, Slate, 25 August 2015

has this page helped you understand "stymie"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "stymie" without saying "impede" or "obstruct."

try it out:

As the New York Times explained, many people in the US leave the country to get surgery:

"Some patients go abroad to circumvent red tape and restrictions that might stymie them at home, [Dr. Valorie Crooks] said. 'You could be too young or too old for an orthopedic surgery; you could be too small or too big for a bariatric surgery — and then you find a surgeon in another country who's willing to offer you the treatment,' she said."

In your opinion, when costs, red tape, and restrictions stymie people from getting medical procedures at home, is it a good idea for them go to foreign countries for those procedures? If you, personally, were stymied in this way, what would you do, and why?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Literally That."

I’ll give you a gif and several synonyms that describe it, and you figure out which of these synonyms is most literally illustrated in the gif. You can check out some examples here.

Try this one today:

(Source)

A. hackneyed
B. threadbare
C. réchauffé

To see the answer, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. The opposite of STYMIE could be

A. HEAL, UNITE, or CONNECT.
B. ASSIST, DIRECT, or GUIDE.
C. LAUD, PRAISE, or CELEBRATE.

2. A writer for the Wall Street Journal pointed out that "AI's _____ has the potential to stymie the growth of the AI boom."

A. revolutionary power
B. rising unpopularity
C. increase in funding

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
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On writing...
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How to motivate our kids to write.
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How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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