stimulus

See also: Stimulus

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin stimulus (“goad, prick”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈstɪm.jə.ləs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

stimulus (plural stimuluses or stimuli)

1. An external phenomenon that has an influence on a system, by triggering or modifying an internal phenomenon; for example, a spur or incentive that drives a person to take action or change behaviour.

   an economic stimulus

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 174:

     From the beginning of the show to the end, vanity is the sole stimulus and reward of action—vanity, that never looks beyond the present.

   • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     Democrats, meanwhile, point out that Republicans seem to have made a conscious decision, beginning with the stimulus, to oppose anything the president put forward, dooming any chance of renewed cooperation between the parties.

2. (physiology, psychology, medicine) Something external that elicits or influences a physiological or psychological activity or response, or that affects any of the sensory apparatuses.
   • 2002, Kim Burchiel, Surgical Management of Pain, Thieme, →ISBN, page 44:

     Even light nonpainful stimuli can provoke or exacerbate spontaneous pain; this is not limited to tactile, thermal, or vibratory stimuli, because auditory, visual, olfactory, and visceral stimuli also may be problematic.

3. (botany, entomology) A stinging part on the body of a plant or insect.
   • 1789, Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants, J. Johnson, page 15:

     Many plants, like many animals, are furnished with arms for their protection; these are either aculei, prickles […] ; or stimuli, stings, as in the nettles, which are armed with a venomous fluid for the annoyance of naked animals.

Synonyms

• (anything that may have an impact or influence): influence; impetus, impulse, spur

Derived terms

• antistimulus
• chemostimulus
• contrastimulus
• costimulus
• counterstimulus
• discriminative stimulus
• external stimulus
• extrastimulus
• gravistimulus
• hyperstimulus
• interstimulus
• mechanostimulus
• microstimulus
• noxious stimulus
• peristimulus
• photostimulus
• Porkulus
• poststimulus
• poverty of the stimulus
• prestimulus
• stimulon
• stimulus check
• stimulus delta
• stimulus-response time
• superstimulus
• tristimulus

 

Translations

anything that may have an impact or influence on a system

• Albanian: nxitje (sq)
• Armenian: ազդակ (hy) (azdak)
• Bulgarian: подбуда (bg) f (podbuda), подтик (bg) (podtik)
• Catalan: estímul (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 刺激物 (zh) (cìjīwù)

• Danish: stimulans (da) c
• Dutch: prikkel (nl) m, stimulus (nl) m, stimulans (nl) m, incentief (nl) n
• Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} sprono, ^{(please verify)} ekilo
• Finnish: vaikute (fi), kannuste (fi), kiihoke (fi), ärsyke (fi), heräte (fi); stimulus (fi) (scientific)
• French: stimulus (fr) m
• Galician: estímulo (gl) m
• German: Auslöseimpuls m
• Greek: ερέθισμα (el) n (eréthisma)
• Italian: stimolo (it)
• Japanese: 刺激 (ja) (しげき, shigeki)
• Latin: stimulus m
• Persian: مُحَرِّک (fa)
• Polish: bodziec (pl) m
• Portuguese: estímulo (pt) m
• Romanian: stimul (ro) m
• Russian: сти́мул (ru) m (stímul), побуди́тель (ru) m (pobudítelʹ), стимуля́тор (ru) m (stimuljátor)
• Spanish: estímulo (es) m, apetite m

something external that elicits or influences a physiological or psychological activity or response

• Armenian: ազդակ (hy) (azdak)
• Bulgarian: стимул (bg) m (stimul)
• Catalan: estímul (ca) m
• Czech: podnět (cs) m
• Danish: stimulans (da) c
• Dutch: prikkel (nl) m, stimulus (nl) m, stimulans (nl) m, incentief (nl) n
• Finnish: ärsyke (fi), stimulus (fi) (scientific)
• German: Stimulus (de) m
• Greek: ερέθισμα (el) n (eréthisma)
• Hungarian: inger (hu)
• Polish: bodziec (pl) m
• Portuguese: estímulo (pt) m
• Romanian: stimul (ro) m
• Russian: сти́мул (ru) m (stímul)
• Spanish: estímulo (es) m, apetite m
• Tagalog: ganyak

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} stimulans (nl) m, ^{(please verify)} stimulus (nl)
• Greek:

  Ancient: κέντρον n (kéntron)

• Latin: stimulus m, calcar n
• Irish: ^{(please verify)} spreagadh m

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin stimulus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsti.my.lʏs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sti‧mu‧lus

Noun

stimulus m (plural stimuli, diminutive stimulusje n)

1. stimulus

Related terms

• stimulans
• stimulatie
• stimuleren

 

Esperanto

Verb

stimulus

1. conditional of stimuli

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin stimulus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sti.my.lys/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

Noun

stimulus m (plural stimulus or stimuli)

1. stimulus

Further reading

• “stimulus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch stimulus, from Latin stimulus (“goad, prick”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [stiˈmulʊs], [sə̆tiˈmulʊs]
• Hyphenation: sti‧mu‧lus

Noun

stimulus (uncountable)

1. stimulus

   Synonym: perangsang

Derived terms

• menstimulus
• terstimulus

 

Further reading

• “stimulus” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Latin

Etymology

Possibly from a Proto-Indo-European *(s)tey- (“sharp object”) that might also be found in stilus, stīva. This could be an unextended variant of the same root found in *(s)teyg- (“to pierce, prick, be sharp”), the source of Ancient Greek στίζω (stízō, “I mark”), although De Vaan is skeptical of the connection.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈsti.mu.lus/, [ˈs̠t̪ɪmʊɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈsti.mu.lus/, [ˈst̪iːmulus]

Noun

stimulus m (genitive stimulī); second declension

1. a goad, prick
2. a sting
3. (figuratively) stimulus, incentive

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	stimulus	stimulī
genitive	stimulī	stimulōrum
dative	stimulō	stimulīs
accusative	stimulum	stimulōs
ablative	stimulō	stimulīs
vocative	stimule	stimulī

Related terms

• stimulātiō
• stimulō

Descendants

Borrowings:

• → Catalan: estímul
• → Dutch: stimulus
• → English: stimulus
• → French: stimulus
• → Galician: estímulo
• → Italian: stimolo
• → Piedmontese: stimol
• → Portuguese: estímulo
• → Romanian: stimul
• → Russian: сти́мул (stímul)
• → Spanish: estímulo

Further reading

• “stimulus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “stimulus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• stimulus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• stimulus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to be spurred on by ambition: stimulis gloriae concitari
    
  • to spur, urge a person on: calcaria alicui adhibere, admovere; stimulos alicui admovere
    
• “stimulus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin.

Noun

stimulus m (definite singular stimulus, indefinite plural stimuli, definite plural stimuliene)

1. a stimulus

Usage notes

• By a 1995 spelling decision, Norsk språkråd permitted the regular plural forms stimuluser and stimulusene. These are scarcely used.

Related terms

• stimulere

Further reading

• “stimulus” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “stimulus” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin.

Noun

stimulus m (plural stimulusen)

1. a stimulus

Usage notes

• By a 1995 spelling decision, Norsk språkråd permitted the regular plural forms stimulusar and stimulusane. These are scarcely used.

Related terms

• stimulere

Further reading

• “stimulus” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
• “stimulus”, in Norsk Ordbok: ordbok over det norske folkemålet og det nynorske skriftmålet, Oslo: Samlaget, 1950-2016

Swedish

Noun

stimulus c or n

1. (physiology, psychology, medicine) stimulus

Usage notes

"Economic stimulus" is "ekonomisk stimulans."

Declension

Declension of stimulus

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	stimulus	stimulus
	definite	stimuluset, stimulusen	stimulusets, stimulusens
plural	indefinite	stimulus, stimuli	stimulus, stimulis
	definite	stimulusen, stimulina	stimulusens, stimulinas

Related terms

• stimulans
• stimulera

References

• stimulus in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• stimulus in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• stimulus in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)