Sterling

n.	1.	(Engin.) Same as Starling, 3.
	1.	Any English coin of standard value; coined money. So that ye offer nobles or sterlings. - Chaucer. And Roman wealth in English sterling view. - Arbuthnot.
	2.	A certain standard of quality or value for money. Sterling was the known and approved standard in England, in all probability, from the beginning of King Henry the Second's reign. - S. M. Leake.
a.	1.	Belonging to, or relating to, the standard British money of account, or the British coinage; as, a pound sterling; a shilling sterling; a penny sterling; - now chiefly applied to the lawful money of England; but sterling cost, sterling value, are used.
	2.	Genuine; pure; of excellent quality; conforming to the highest standard; of full value; as, a work of sterling merit; a man of sterling good sense.

Noun	1.	sterling - British money; especially the pound sterling as the basic monetary unit of the UK
Adj.	1.	sterling - highest in quality Synonyms: superlative, greatest

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.

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