Stigma, R. (στίγμα, lit. a mark by pricking). A mark, impression, or brand. Thieves were branded with the letter F, which stood for fur, thief. A stigma tattooed on the arm was the mark by which conscripts were declared capable of military service, &c., hence
Stigmata, Chr. The marks of the five sacred wounds on the hands, feet, and side of Our Lord; said to have been miraculously printed on the persons of saints.
Stil de grain. (See Pinks.)
Still Life. Inanimate objects.
Stilted Arch. One having the capital or impost mouldings of the jambs below the level of the springing of the curve, the moulding of the arch being continued vertically down to the impost mouldings.
Stilus, Stylus, R. A style, or instrument of bone, ivory, iron, bronze, or silver, about five inches long, having one end pointed, and the other flattened like a spatula; the latter served either to spread the wax on the writing-tablet, or to erase by smoothing down what had been written upon it; the other and pointed end served for writing upon the wax-covered tablet. The term also denoted (1) the needle or index of a sun-dial; (2) a bronze needle; (3) a probe employed for garden purposes. (4) A sharp stake in a pitfall. It was also called graphium.
Stimulus, R. (στίζω, to prick). A goad for driving cattle.
Stipple. Etched imitations of chalk drawings of the human figure, called engravings in stipple, have a very soft effect, but are inferior to engraving. In this variety the whole subject is executed in dots without strokes on the etching-ground, and these dots are bitten in with aquafortis. The dots may be harmonized with a little hammer, in which case the work is called opus mallei. In the method known as mezzo-tinto, a dark barb or ground is raised uniformly by means of a toothed tool; and the design being traced, the light parts are scraped off from the plate by fitting instruments, according to the effect required. (See Engraving.)
Stips, R. A small bronze coin, equal to the twelfth part of an as, or about a quarter of a farthing; it bore on the reverse the prow of a vessel.
Stocheion, Gr. A form of sun-dial. (See Horologium.)