What is "sterling"

Starling \Star"ling\ (-l[i^]ng), n. [OE. sterlyng, a dim. of OE. stare, AS. st[ae]r; akin to AS. stearn, G. star, staar, OHG. stara, Icel. starri, stari, Sw. stare, Dan. st[ae]r, L. sturnus. Cf. Stare a starling.]

1. (Zo["o]l.) Any passerine bird belonging to Sturnus and allied genera. The European starling ( Sturnus vulgaris) is dark brown or greenish black, with a metallic gloss, and spotted with yellowish white. It is a sociable bird, and builds about houses, old towers, etc. Called also stare, and starred. The pied starling of India is Sternopastor contra.

2. (Zo["o]l.) A California fish; the rock trout.

3. A structure of piles driven round the piers of a bridge for protection and support; -- called also sterling.

   Rose-colored starling. (Zo["o]l.) See Pastor.

c.1300, "silver penny," probably from Middle English sterre (see star (n.)), according to OED "presumably" from the stars that appeared in the design of certain Norman coins, + diminutive suffix -ling. But starred coins were not especially common among Anglo-Saxon currency, and the stars on them tended to be small. The other theory [Kluge] is that it derives from Old French estedre "stater" (see stater). Sense broadened by 1560s to "money having the quality of the sterling," and c.1600 to "English money in general." As an adjective from early 15c. From 1640s in general sense of "capable of standing a test" (as a sound coin would). A pound sterling was originally "a pound weight of sterlings," equal to about 240 of them.

a. 1 of, or relating to British currency, or the former British coinage. 2 of, relating to, or made from sterling silver. 3 Of acknowledged worth or influence; high quality; authoritative. n. The currency of the United Kingdom; especially the pound.

n. British money; especially the pound sterling as the basic monetary unit of the UK

adj. highest in quality [syn: greatest, sterling(a), superlative]

Sterling may refer to:

Sterling was a brand name of automobile marketed in the United States by ARCONA ( Austin Rover Cars Of North America) under the name Sterling Motor Cars, a division of the Rover car company of the UK. It existed in North America from 1987 to 1991, during which Rover was in collaboration with Honda of Japan.

Sterling (previously Sterling Business Management Systems) is a consulting firm led by Kevin Wilson, which offers business administration seminars and training based on L. Ron Hubbard's teachings to Accounting, Medical and Dental and other private practice professionals. Founded in 1983 in the back office of a dental practice in Vacaville, California, it is currently located in a office in Los Angeles, California. From 1994 to 2015 the company was affected by the economic climate, reducing its staff complement to 25 from nearly 300.

Sterling are a British cigarette brand owned by parent company the Gallaher Group, which became a subsidiary of Japan Tobacco in 2007.

Sterling is a fractal-generating computer program written in the C programming language in 1999 for Microsoft Windows by Stephen C. Ferguson. Sterling was initially released as freeware but is not free now. Sterling2 is a freeware version of Sterling with different algorithms. It was released in September 2008 by Tad Boniecki. Apart from the name (which shows as sterlingwar2 in the title bar and on the About screen), the program looks just like the original Sterling. The only internals that are different are the 50 formulae for fractal generation. Parameter files made by Sterling can be used in Sterling2 and vice versa, though they will draw different images.

Sterling is based on the notion that one way to generate interesting fractal images is by using elaborate color filters and shading. In many images, the main interest lies in the filters rather than the actual fractal boundaries themselves, as in traditional fractal-generating programs. The fractal merely serves as a seeding function to the coloring algorithms and filters. A feature of Sterling is the richness of the renders.

Sterling has a simple GUI interface with a limited number of functions. The program saves files as JPEG, BMP or one of six other formats. It draws in Julia mode, allows inside-out rendering and does anti-aliasing. It offers 32 different renders and four transform effects. There are three independent color controls and two ways to zoom into an image.

The Sterling2 ZIP file (436 kb) contains brief instructions. There is no installation — it is enough to put the executable and dynamic-link library files in the same directory and start the exe file.

Sterling is a given name. Notable people with the name include:

• Sterling Brinkley, American businessman
• Sterling Hayden, American actor and author
• Sterling Hitchcock, American Major League Baseball pitcher
• Sterling Holloway, American actor
• Sterling Hyltin, New York City Ballet principal dancer
• Sterling Knight, American actor
• Sterling Marlin, NASCAR Driver, Daytona 500 Champion, Folk Hero
• Sterling Morrison, guitar player with The Velvet Underground
• Sterling Sharpe, former American football wide receiver
• Sterling Simms, singer on Def Jam
• Sterling Slaughter, American major league baseball pitcher for the Chicago Cubs in 1964
• Sterling Van Wagenen, American film producer and co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival

Fictional characters:

• Sterling Archer, eponymous protagonist of the television series Archer

Sterling (1868 – 26 March 1891) was a British racehorse and sire. Although he was not particularly successful in terms of major wins he was very highly regarded, being rated by his jockey Harry Custance as the equal of Thormanby.

Sterling is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

• Sterling (baseball), American baseball player
• Andrew B. Sterling (1874–1955), American songwriter
• Anne Fausto-Sterling (born 1944), American academic
• Antoinette Sterling (1850–1904), Anglo-American vocalist
• Barry Sterling (1943–2014), American businessman and politician
• Brett Sterling (born 1984), American ice hockey player
• Bruce Sterling (born 1954), American science fiction writer
• Christopher H. Sterling (born 1943), American professor of media and public affairs
• Claire Sterling (1919-1995), American author and journalist
• Dana Sterling, fictional character from American TV series RoboTech
• Debbie Sterling, founder and CEO of American toy company Goldieblox
• Donald Sterling (born Donald Tokowitz, 1934), American businessman, attorney and basketball team owner
• Donnie Sterling, American bassist
• Edward Sterling (1773–1847), British journalist
• Edward Boker Sterling (1851-1925), philatelist of Trenton, New Jersey
• Ford Sterling (1883–1939), American actor
• Fred E. Sterling (1869-1934), American politician
• George Sterling (1869–1926), American poet
• Georgie Sterling, Australian actress
• Jan Sterling (1921–2004), American actress
• Jeffrey Sterling, Baron Sterling of Plaistow (born 1934), British peer and former chairman of P&O
• Jim Sterling (born 1984), English video game journalist and reviewer
• John Sterling (author) (1806–1844), British author
• John William Sterling (1844–1918), American philanthropist, corporate attorney, and benefactor to Yale University
• John Sterling (sportscaster) (born 1938), American radio broadcaster
• Leon Sterling, Australian computer scientist
• Lester Sterling (born 1936), Jamaican musician
• Linder Sterling (born 1954), British artist
• Mindy Sterling (born 1953), American actress
• Nici Sterling (born 1968), British porn star
• Norm Sterling (born 1942), Canadian politician
• Peter Sterling (born 1960), Australian rugby league player
• Raheem Sterling (born 1994), English-Jamaican footballer
• Ross S. Sterling (1875–1949), American politician
• Thomas Sterling (1851–1930), American politician
• Thomas Sterling (computing), American computer scientist
• Tisha Sterling (born 1944), American actress
• Wallace Sterling (1906–1985), Canadian-born American university president
• William T. Sterling (1808–1903), American politician