If you look up the word stymie, Google will tell you that it means prevent or hinder the progress of — no surprise there — and it will show you a small graph of its use over time:
So, it’s a relatively new word that peaked in popularity in the early 1950s before growing again. Why would that be? Wikipedia explains:
A stymie was a situation in greens play in golf where one player’s ball blocked the path of another’s to the cup, governed by a now obsolete rule of golf. Formerly, the blocked player was not afforded relief, and had to chip over or putt around the obstructing ball. Today, the blocking ball is temporarily removed to afford a clear line to the hole without penalty to the putter or advantage to the player whose ball is moved.
Various changes to the stymie rule were attempted or enacted by the United States Golf Association (USGA) between 1920 and 1941. Finally, in 1952, the stymie was eliminated when the USGA and Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) established a joint set of rules.
Maybe it is a relatively new word, but that can’t be concluded from the graph. The graph is about “mentions”. The amout of published text increased from 1800 to the present. For this reason almost any word is now mentioned many more time than in 1800.