stadholder 
other view, reflected in the false spelling xliidt- 
holder, the first element is supposed to be D. stud 
= G. stadt, a town, city (a particular use of the 
preceding) ; but this is an error, due to the fact 
that D. staa, in its lit. sense 'place,' is now ob- 
solete ; moreover, a stadholder is not the ' keep- 
er of a city.'] Formerly, in the Netherlands, (a) 
the governor or lieutenant-governor of a prov- 
ince ; (6) the chief magistrate of the United 
Provinces of the Netherlands. 
stadholderate (stad'h61"der-at), i>. [Also 
spelled stadtholdcrate (= F. stathoudSrat): < 
stiittliolder + -te 3 .] The office of a stadholder. 
The Academy, July 20, 1889, p. 32. 
stadholdership (stad'hol"der-ship), i. [Also 
spelled stadtholdcrslup ; < stadholder + -ship.] 
Same as stadholderate. 
stadia (sta'di-a), n. [< ML. stadia, a station, 
a fern, form, orig. pi. of the neut. stadium, a 
stage, station, stadium: see stadium.] 1. A 
station temporarily occupied in surveying. 
2. An instrument for measuring distances by 
means of the angle subtended by an object of 
known dimensions. The instrument commonly so 
called, intended for rough military work in action, con- 
sists of a small glass plate with figures of horsemen and 
foot-soldiers as they appear at marked distances, or with 
two lines nearly horizontal but converging, crossed by ver- 
tical lines marked with the distances at which a man ap- 
pears of the height between the first lines. 
3. In civil and topographical engin., the method 
or the instruments by which what are called 
stadia measurements are made. This use is almost 
exclusively limited to the United States, where this method 
of measuring distances is extensively employed. Stadia 
measurements are based on the geometrical principle that 
the lengths of parallel lines subtending an angle are pro- 
portioned to their distances from the apex of that angle. 
The essential appliances for this kind of work are a pair 
of fine horizontal wires (which are usually of platinum, 
but which may be spider-webs, or even lines ruled or pho- 
tographed on the glass), in addition to the ordinary hori- 
zontal and vertical wires in the diaphragm of a telescope, 
and a staff or graduated rod (the stadia rod) these giving 
the means of measuring with considerable precision the 
angle subtended by the whole or any part of a vertical 
staff, and thus furnishing the data for determining the 
distance of the rod from the point of sight. This may be 
accomplished by making the subtending angle variable 
(that is, by making the wires movable) and the space on 
the staff fixed in length, or by having the angle constant 
(that is, the wires fixed in position) and reading off a 
varying length on the staff ; the latter is the method now 
most generally used. The wires may be applied to the 
telescope of any suitable instrument, as a theodolite or 
transit-theodolite; butthemethodisspecially well adapted 
foruse in plane-tabling, thewires being inserted in the tele- 
scope of the alidade. This arrangement has been exten- 
sively used in the United States, and has given excellent 
results. The intervals between the wires are frequently 
arranged so that at a distance of 100 feet a space of one 
foot shall be intercepted on the rod ; but there are also 
instruments made in which the number of wires is in- 
creased, the method of reading varying accordingly. 
stadiet, [ME., < L. stadium, a race-course, 
a furlong : see stade?, stadium.] A race-course ; 
a stadium. 
Yif a man renneth in the stadie or in the forlonge for 
the corone, than lieth the mede in the corone for whiche 
he renneth. Chaucer, Boethius, iv. prose 3. 
stadiometer (sta-di-om'e-ter), . [< Gr. orddtov 
(see stadium) + fiirpov, measure.] A modified 
theodolite in which the directions are not read 
off, but marked upon a small sheet, which is 
changed at each station. The distances as read on 
the telemeter can also be laid down. The stadiometer 
differs from the plane-table in that the alidade cannot be 
moved relatively to the sheet. 
Stadium (sta'di-um), n. ; pi. stadia (-a). [< L. 
stadium, < Gr. arddiov, a fixed standard of length, 
stand: see stand. Cf. stade?, stadie.] 1. A 
Greek itinerary unit, originally the distance 
between successive stations of the shouters 
and runners employed to estimate distances. 
The stadium of Eratosthenes seems to have been short of 
520 English feet; but the stadium at the race-course at 
Athens has been found to be between 603 and 610 English 
feet. The Roman stadium was about the same length, 
being one eighth of a Roman mile. 
Hence 2. A Greek course for foot-races, dis- 
posed on a level, with sloping banks or tiers of 
seats for spectators rising along its two sides 
and at one end, which was typically of semi- 
circular plan. The course proper was exactly a stadi- 
um in length. The most celebrated stadia were those of 
Olympia and Athens. 
3. A stage; period; in med., a stage or period 
of a disease, especially of an intermittent dis- 
ease. 
Mohammed was now free once more ; but he no longer 
thought of carrying on his polemic against the Meccans 
or of seeking to influence them at all. In his relations to 
them three stadia can be distinguished, although it is 
easier to determine their character than their chronology. 
Encyc. Brit., XVI. 550. 
5886 
stadiet, . An obsolete form of sladdle. 
Stadmannia (stad-mau'i-a), n. [NL. (Lamarck, 
1823), named after Staduiaini, a German botani- 
cal traveler.] A genus of trees, of the order ,sv<- 
piiidacex and tribe Nephelieze. It is distinguished 
from the nearly related genus Nephdium (which see) by 
the absence of petals and by a somewhat spherical calyx 
with five broad obtuse teeth, by warty branches, and by 
small velvety plum-like berries. The only species, S. Si- 
deroxylon, is a native of Mauritius and Bourbon. It has 
alternate abruptly pinnate leaves with from three to six 
pairs of oblong obtuse leaflets, oblique at the base, each 
k-allet narrow, entire, smooth, and finely reticulated. The 
small pedicelled flowers form axillary branching panicles, 
with conspicuous long-exserted erect stamens. It is 
known as Bourbon ironwood. See Macassar oil, under oil. 
stadtholder, stadtholderate (stat'hol"der, 
-at), etc. Erroneous spellings of stadholder, 
etc. 
staff (staf), n. ; pi. staves, staffs (stavz, stafs). 
[< ME. stfiff, staffe, staf (gen. staves, dat. stave, 
pi. staves), < AS. stxf, in a very early form staeb, 
pi. stafas, a stick, staff, twig, letter (see etym. 
of book), = OS. staf= OFries. stef= D. staf = 
MLG. LG. staf = OHG. MHG. stap (stab-), G. 
stab, a staff, = Icel. stafr, a staff, post, stick, 
stave of a cask, a letter, = Sw. staf, a staff, = 
Dan. stav, a staff, stick (also stab, a staff (body 
of assistants), an astragal (of a cannon), < G.), 
= Goth. stafs (stab-), element, rudiment (not re- 
corded in the orig. senses ' letter' and ' stick') ; 
= OBulg. stapu, shtapu = OServ. stipt, Serv. 
stap, shtap = Hung, istap, a staff, = Lith. stebas, 
a staff, stabas, stobras, a pillar; of. Gael, stob, 
a stake, stump; prob. related to OHG. staben, 
be stiff, from an extended form of the root sta 
of stand: see stand. Not connected with L. 
stipes, a stock, post, which is cognate with E. 
stiff. Hence stave, q. v.] 1. A stick or pole. 
Specifically (a) A stick used as a walking-stick, espe- 
cially one five or six feet long used as a support in walk- 
ing or climbing. 
In his hand a staf. Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to C. T., 1. 495. 
He [the pilgrim] had a long staffe in his hand with a 
nobbe in the middle, according to the fashion of those 
Pilgrims staffes. Coryat, Crudities, I. 20. 
(6) A stick used as a weapon, as that used at quarter-staff ; 
a club; a cudgel. 
A god to-hande staffe therowt he hent, 
Befor Roben he lepe. 
Robin Hood and the Potter (Child's Ballads, V. 20). 
The wars are doubtful ; 
And on our horsemen's slaves Death looks as grimly 
As on your keen-edg'd swords. 
Fletcher, Humorous Lieutenant, i. 1. 
(c) A stick used as an ensign of authority; a batou or 
scepter. Compare baton, club*, mace*. 
The Earl of Worcester 
Hath broke his staff, resign'd his stewardship. 
Shale., Rich. II., ii. 2. 59. 
(d) A post fixed in the ground ; a stake. 
The rampant bear chain'd to the ragged staff. 
Shale., 2 Hen. VI., v. 1. 203. 
(e) A pole on which to hoist and display a flag : as, a flag- 
staff; an ensign-staff; a jack-staff. 
The flag of Norway and the cross of St. George floated 
from separate staffs on the lawn. 
B. Taylor, Northern Travel, p. 295. 
(/t) The pole of a vehicle ; a carriage-pole. 
His newe lady holdeth him so narowe 
Up by the brydel, at the staves ende, 
That every word he dred it as an arowe. 
Chaucer, Anelida and Arcite, 1. 184. 
(0) The long handle of certain weapons, as a spear, a hal- 
berd, or a poleax. 
There stuck no plume in any English crest 
That is removed by a staff of France. 
Shak., K. John, it 1. 318. 
Their staves upon their rests they lay. 
Drayton, Nymphidia. 
(A) A straight-edge for testing or truing a line or surface : 
as, the ^root-staff used in testing the face of the stone 
in a grind-mill, (t) In sun., a graduated stick, used 
in leveling. See cross-staff, Jacob's-staff, and cut under 
levelitig-staff. (i) One of several instruments formerly 
used in taking the sun's altitude at sea : as, the fore-staff, 
back-sto/; cross-staff. See these words. (*) In ship-build- 
ing, a measuring and spacing rule. (I) The stilt of a plow. 
2. In surg., a grooved steel instrument having 
a curvature, used to guide the knife or gorget 
through the urethra into the bladder in the 
operation of lithotomy. 3. In arch., same as 
rudeture. 4. Something which upholds or 
supports ; a support ; a prop. 
He is asta/e of stedfastnes bothe erly & latte 
To chastes siehe kaytifes as don ayenst the lawe. 
Political Poems, etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 3. 
The boy was the very staff of my age, my very prop. 
5Ao*., M.of V.,ii. 2. 70. 
Bread is the staff of life. Swift, Tale of a Tub, iv. 
5f. A round of a ladder. Latham. 6. A body 
of assistants or executive officers, (a) MiKt., 
a body of officers who are not in command of troops' 
but who act as the assistants of an officer in high com- 
mand, sometimes including that officer himself. Thus, 
staff 
the regimental staff consists of the colonel, lieutenant- 
colonel. IIKIJOI, and adjutant, or the officers rorrespcind- 
ing to these ranks; the lirigade staff and division staf 
are composed of aides-de-camp, cumin issarifs, qoarter- 
muten, and the like ; and the staff of a general com- 
manding an army-corps, or an army composed of several 
army-corps, includes these last-named officers and also 
a chief of staff, a chief of artillery, a chief engineer, and 
the like. The general staff is a body of officers form- 
ing the central office of the army of a nation, and it acts, 
in a sense, as the personal staff of the Commander-in-chief 
or of the king or other chief ruler. In the United States 
navy, stiiff-offlcers are the non-combatants, comprising the 
medical corps, the pay-corps, the steam-engineering corps, 
and chaplains, of those who go to sea, as well as civil engi- 
neers, naval constructors, and professors of mathematics 
(b) A body of executive officers attached to any establish- 
ment for the carrying out of its designs, or a number of 
persons, considered as one body, intrusted with the exe- 
cution of any undertaking : as, the editorial and reporting 
staff of a newspaper; the staff of the Geological Survey a 
hospital staff. 
The Archbishop [Becket] had amongst his chaplains a 
staff of professors on a small scale. 
Stubbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 143. 
7f. A letter of the alphabet. See etymology of 
book. 
The flrrste staff iis nemmnedd I. Ormulum, 1. 4312. 
8f. A line ; a verse ; also, a stanza. 
Nerehande stafe by staf, by gret diligence, 
Sauyng that I most metre apply to ; 
The wourdes meue, and sett here & ther. 
Ram. of Partenay (E. E. T. S.), 1. 6555. 
If we consider well the forme of this Poeticall staffe, we 
shall flnde it to be a certaine number of verses allowed to 
go altogether and ioyne without any intermission, and doe 
or should finish vp all the sentences of the same with a 
full period. Pultenham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 64. 
I can sing but one staff ol the ditty neither. 
B. Jonson, Poetaster, ii. 1. 
Cowley found out that no kind of staff ii proper for a 
heroic poem, as being all too lyrical. Dryden. 
9. In musical notation, a set of five horizontal 
lines on which notes are placed so as to indi- 
cate the pitch of intended tones. Both the lines 
and the spaces between them are significant, and are called 
degrees: they are numbered from below upward. When 
the nine de- 
grees of the 
staff are not 
sufficient for 
the notation 
of a melody 
or chord, it is 
extended by 
means of add- 
ed or leger 
lines above 
or below. In 
2d added line. 
1st " ' 
1th " 
4th space 
3d " 
2d " 
2d " 
lot " 
1st " 
1st added line. 
2d- " " 
general, the successive degrees of the staff are understood 
to correspond to the successive degrees of the scale or to 
the successive white keys of the keyboard, irrespective of 
the fact that the intervals thus indicated are not equal 
to each other. An absolute pitch for the staff-degrees is 
indicated by a clef placed at the beginning. (See clef.) 
Gregorian music is customarily written on a staff of four 
lines, and the only clef used is the C clef. The staff with 
its appropriate notation is a development from the early 
medieval neumes, which were originally dots, dashes, or 
compound marks, whose relative position or shape indi- 
cated the relative pitch of successive tones. To make this 
notation more precise a horizontal line was drawn across 
the page to mark the pitch of some given tone, as C or F, 
and the neumes were arranged above or below this line. 
Later, a second line was added, and then others, only the 
lines being at first regarded as significant What was 
called the great or grand staff was such a staff of eleven 
lines. In harmonic or concerted music, two or more staffs 
are used together, and are connected by a brace. See 
brace*, 5, and score*, 9. Also stave, especially in Great 
Britain. 
10. In her., same as fissure, 5. Bishop's staff 
See crazier, i. Cantoral staff, cantor's staff, the offi- 
cial staff of a cantor or precentor: it is primarily the 
baton with which he beats time, but is often large, and 
elaborately ornamented, becoming a mere badge of office. 
Also called baton. David's Staff, a kind of quadrant for- 
merly used in navigation. Episcopal staff, in her., the 
representation of a bishop's or pastoral staff, usually en- 
twined with a banderole which is secured to the shaft 
below the head. See cut under banderole. Folilferous 
staff. See/olUferow. Jeddart staff, a form of battle- 
ax used by mounted men-at-arms : so named from the town 
of Jedburgh, in Scotland, the arms of which bear such a 
weapon. Also called Jedwood ax. Fairholt. Marshal's 
staff. See marshal. Northern staff, a quarter-staff. 
Palmer's Staff, in her., same as bourdon*, 3. Papal 
staff, in her., a staff topped with the papal cross of three 
in the Greek Church it generally has a T-shaped head, 
often curved upward and inward at the ends ; in the Ro- 
man Catholic and some other churches it bears a cross 
in the case of an archbishop, and a double cross in the 
case of a patriarch. See cambuca, crazier, pateressa, suda- 
rium. Pilgrim's Staff. See pilgrim. Red Staff, in 
mating, a straight-edge used to test the dress of a mill- 
stone. It is so called because it is rubbed with red chalk 
or ocher, by means of which inequalities on the surface 
of the stone are detected. Ruig-and-staff investi- 
ture. See ecclesiastical investiture, under investiture. 
Short Staff, the cudgel used in ordinary cudgel-play, 
similar to the modern single-stick as distinguished from 
quarter-staff. Staff raguly.in Aer., eitherapalletconped 
raguly, or the representation of a trunk of a tree with short 
projections on the opposite sides, as of limbs sawed off. 
