STEP-DAUGHTER. In Latin privigna, is the daughter of one's wife, or of one's hushand.

STEP-FATHER. In Latin vitricus, is the hushand of one's mother who is not the father of the person spoken of.

STEP-MOTHER. In Latin noverca, is the wife of one's father, who is not the mother of the person spoken of.

STEP-SON. In Latin privignus, is the son of one's wife, or of one's hushand.

STERE. A French measure of solidity used in measuring wood. It is a cubic metre. Vide Measure.

STERILITY. Barrenness; incapacity to produce a child. It is curable and incurable; when of the latter kind, at the time of the marriage, and arising from impotency, it is a good cause for dissolving a marriage. 1 Fodere, Med. Leg. §254. See Impotency.

STERLING. Current money of Great Britain, but anciently a small coin, worth about one penny; and so called, as some suppose, because it was stamped with the figure of a small star, or, as others suppose, because it was first stamped in England in the reign of King John, by merchants from Germany called Esterlings. Pounds sterling, originally signified so many pounds in weight of these coins. Thus we find in Matthew Paris, A.D. 1242, the expression "Accepit a rege pro stipendio tredecim libras esterlingorum." The secondary or derived sense is a certain value in current money, whether in coins or other currency. Lowndes, 14. Watts' Gloss. Ad verbum.

STET PROCESSUS, practice. An order made, upon proper cause shown, that the process remain stationary. As where a defendant having become insolvent would, by moving judgment in the case of nonsuit, compel a plaintiff to proceed, the court will, on an affidavit, of the fact of insolvency, award a stet proces-sus. See 7 Taunt. Rep. 180, 1 Chit. Rep. 738; 10 Wentw. Pl. 43.

STEVEDORE. A person employed in loading and unloading vessels. Dunl. Adm. Pr. 98. Vide Arrameurs; Sac

STEWARD OF ALL ENGLAND. Seneschallus totius Angliae. An officer among the English who was invested with various powers, and, among others, it was his duty to preside on the trial of peers.