576 
S T E 
To STEREOTYPE, v. a. [stereotyper, Fr.] To make 
type-metal plates to print from at the letter-press, or any 
other multiform solid types. To print a book with these 
plates. 
STEREOTYPER, s. One who stereotypes. 
STEREOXYLON [from trrepeot, hard and solid, and 
5v\ov, Gr., wood, a name given by Ruiz and Pavon in their 
Flora Peruviana, to the genus by Linnaeus Escallonia ; 
see that article. 
STE'RILE, adj. [sterile, Fr.; sterilis, Lat., from 
a-r€ipo;, Gr., which has the same meaning, and which is 
usually derived from <r repea, to deprive."] Barren ; unfruit¬ 
ful ; not productive; wanting fecundity. 
Our elders say. 
The barren, touched iu this holy chase. 
Shake off their sterile curse. Shakspeare. 
STERI'LITY, s. [sterilite, Fr.; sterilitas, from sterilis, 
Lat.] Barrenness ; want of fecundity; unfruitfulness.'— 
Spain is thin sown of people, by reason of the sterility of 
the soil, and because their natives are exhausted by so many 
employments in such vast territories. Bacon. 
To STE'RILIZE, v. a. To make barren; to deprive of 
fecundity; or the power of production.—Go! sterilize the 
fertile with thy rage. Savage. 
STERLING, adj. [of this word many derivations have 
been offered; the most probable of which is that offered by 
Camden, who derives it from the Easterlings, who were 
employed as coiners.] An epithet by which genuine English 
money is discriminated.—Several of them would rather chuse 
to count out a sum in sesterces than in pounds sterling. 
Addison. —Genuine ; having past the test.—There is not 
one single witty phrase in this collection, which hath not 
received the stamp and approbation of one hundred years; 
he may therefore be secure to find them all genuine, sterling, 
and authentic. Swift. 
STERLING, s. [sterlingum, low Lat. from the adjec¬ 
tive.] English coin; money. 
Accept this offering to thy bounty due. 
And Roman wealth in English sterling view. Arbuthnot. 
Standard rate.— Sterling was the known and approved 
standard in England, in all probability from the beginning 
of King Henry the Second’s reign. Leake. 
STERLING, a township of the United States, in Frank¬ 
lin county, Vermont; 30 miles north-north-west of Mont¬ 
pelier. Population 121. 
STERLING, a post township of the United States, in 
Worcester county, Massachusetts, which contains a consi¬ 
derable village. Population 1472 ; 12 miles north of 
Worcester, and 44 west of Boston, 
STERLING, a post township of the United States, in 
Windham county, Connecticut. Population 1101; 18 
miles north-east of Norwich. Lat. 41. 42. N. long. 71. 
53. W. 
STERLINGVILLE, a post township of the United States, 
in Granville county. North Carolina. 
STERLITAMAK, a small town in the interior of Russia, 
in the government of Orenbourg, at the confluence of the 
rivers Stela and Belaja. It is the depot of the salt 
made from the lake of Iletzk; 75 miles south-by-east of 
Ufa. 
STERN, adj. [jtypn, Sax.] Severe of countenance ; 
truculent of aspect.—Why look you still so stern and tra¬ 
gical ? Shakspeare. —Severe of manners; harsh; unre¬ 
lenting; cruel. 
Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible: 
Thou stern, obdurate, flinty, rough, remorseless. 
Shakspeare. 
Hard; afflictive. 
Mischiefe stood, 
And with his stern steele, drew in streams the blood. 
Chapman. 
S T E 
STERN, s. [fteapn, or j ceope. Sax.] The hind part of 
the ship where the rudder is placed.—They turn their heads 
to sea, their sterns to land. Dryden. —Post of manage¬ 
ment; direction. 
The King from Eltam I intend to send, 
And sit at chiefest stern of public weal. Shakspeare. 
The hinder part of any thing. 
She all at once her beastly body raised, 
With doubled forces high above the ground; 
Tho’ wrapping up her wreathed stern around, 
Lept fierce upon his shield. Spenser. 
STERNA, the Tern, in Ornithology, a genus of birds of 
the order Auseres, of which the Generic Character is: bill 
subulate, straightish, pointed, a little compressed, without 
teeth; nostrils linear; tongue pointed; wings very long.; 
tail mostly forked. Twenty-five species of this genus are 
enumerated by Gmelin : they are mostly inhabitants of the 
ocean, and feed on fishes. Many of them are found on the 
shores of large lakes and rivers. Four of the species are 
common to our own country. They breed among small 
tufts of rushes, and lay three or four eggs of a dull olive 
colour, spotted with black. The birds belonging to this 
genus are at all times clamorous and gregarious, but more 
particularly in the spring of the year, during the time of 
nestling. At this period they assemble in large flocks, and 
their activity seems greatly increased, for they repeat with 
eagerness their sharp piercing notes so incessantly, that 
persons cannot approach the place where they breed without 
being almost stunned with their noise. With us the terns 
are migratory, leaving our shores regularly on the approach 
of winter. 
1. Sterna Caspia.—The Caspian tern has its body above 
of a plumbeous-ash colour; beneath and neck svhite; the bill 
is scarlet; the frontlet and legs are black. It is found, as its 
specific name denotes, on the Caspian sea, and is nearly two 
feet in length.—It frequents the sea-shores and banks; feeds 
on small fish and sea-insects, hovering over the water, and 
suddenly darting into it for its prey. 
There are three varieties: 1. Crown black, spotted with 
white; tail-feathers with brown bars.—It inhabits Bombay, 
and is twenty-one inches long: its bill is red; and legs 
black. 2. Crown black; hind-head sub-crested ; outer tail- 
feathers white from the middle to the tip; the bill is yellow¬ 
ish ; and the legs black.—It inhabits China, and the Sand¬ 
wich islands. 3. The bill in this is white; frontlet varied 
black and white; ears black; back and wings cinereous; 
quill and tail-feathers tipt with black. 
2. Sterna Cayanensis, or Cayenne tern..—Cinereous; the 
feathers edged with reddish; beneath they are white; the 
hind-head is black.—It inhabits Cayenne, and is sixteen in¬ 
ches long. 
3. Sterna Surinamensis, or Surinam tern.—Bill, head, 
neck, and breast, black; back, wings, and tail, cinereous; 
belly whitish; legs red.—It inhabits Surinam, and is about 
fifteen inches long. 
4. Sterna fuliginosa, or sooty tern.—Black; beneath, 
cheeks, front, and shafts of the quill and tail-feathers, white. 
The bill and legs are white; the eggs yellowish, with brown 
and violet spots; outer tail-feathers white, except at the tip. 
—It inhabits the Atlantic and Antarctic seas, and is sixteen 
inches long. 
5. Sterna Africana, or African tern.—White; bill and legs 
black; crown, wings, and tip of the tail, spotted. The 
crown is spotted with black, the wings with brown, and the 
tail with white; quill-feathers blueish-ash.—It is an African 
bird, and is about the size of the Sterna fuliginosa. 
6. Sterna stolida, or noddy.—Body black; front whitish; 
eye-brows black; bill and legs black; the hind-head is 
cinereous.—It is fifteen inches long; found chiefly within 
the tropics; is clamorous; seldom goes far from shore, and 
always rests at night.—It builds on rocks; and its eggs are 
excellent food. 
7. Sterna 
