Stanhope. An open carriage named in compliment to the Earl of Stanhope, author and politician.
Stanhope Gate. This entrance to Hyde Park, in Park Lane, received its name from Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, residing at Chesterfield House close by.
Staples Inn. Properly “Staplers’ Inn,” the ancient Hall of the Woolstaplers, styled Merchants of the Staple.
Star and Garter. An inn or tavern sign commemorative of the institution of the Order of the Garter by Edward III.
Star Chamber. This historic court received its name not from the stars decorating the ceiling, as generally stated, but because it was the ancient depository of the Starra, or Jewish records, at the order of Richard I.
Start your Boots. An Americanism for “Be off!” “Walk away.”
Starvation Dundas. The sobriquet of Henry Dundas, created Lord Melville, owing to his constant repetition of the word “Starvation” in the course of a debate on American affairs in 1775.
State of Spain. New Jersey. After the battle of Waterloo Joseph Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon I., fled to New Jersey, and, settling on an estate at Borderstown, gathered so many Frenchmen and Spaniards around him that the Philadelphians regarded the people of this state generally as Spaniards and foreigners. At this time Joseph Bonaparte was nominally King of Naples and of Spain.
Stationer. This term was not derived from “Stationery,” since the latter grew out of the former. Ancient so-called booksellers were of two kinds: the itinerants, and the stallholders in open market. Both dealt in such books as were known at the time--hornbooks and the like--but principally in writing materials, and as the stationery booksellers had a more varied assortment than the pedlars, pen, ink, and paper eventually received the name of “stationery,” and their vendors that of “stationers.”
Steelyard. The name given to a weighing machine on which a single weight is moved along a graduated beam. This has no reference to a “yard” measure, but to the ancient Steelyard near London Bridge, where the German merchants of old landed, weighed, and sold their fine steel.