Stā'men, n.
Eng. pl. STĀ'MENS (used only in the fourth sense); Lat. pl. STĀ'MI-NA (in the first three senses). [Lat. stamen, the warp, a thread, fiber, from Gr. στῆμων, the warp, from ἵστημι, to stand.]
Sense 1. A thread; especially, a warp thread.
Sense 2. The fixed, firm part of a body, which supports it or gives it its strength and solidity; as, the bones are the stamina of animal bodies; the ligneous parts of trees are the stamina which constitute their strength;—chiefly or only used in the plural.
Sense 3. Whatever constitutes the principal strength or support of any thing; as, the stamina of a constitution or of life; the stamina of a state;—used only in the plural.
He succeeded to great captains who had sapped the whole stamina and resistance of the contest. De Quincey.
Sense 4. (pl. STĀ'MENS.) (Bot.) The male organ of flowers for secreting and furnishing the pollen or fecundating dust. It consists of the anther, or fertilizing part, borne on a stem called the filament.