Pl. stadia; also 6 stadias, stadios, 8 stadia’s, 7 stadiums, stadium’s. [L., ad. Gr. στάδιον.
A plural form stadii (after Gr. στάδιοι, L. accus. stadios) used by Byron, Sardanapalus, V. i. has been corrected in posthumous editions to stadia.]
1. An ancient Greek and Roman measure of length, varying according to time and place, but most commonly equal to 600 Greek or Roman feet, or one-eighth of a Roman mile. (In the English Bible rendered by furlong.)
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxix. (1495), 937. The Stadium is the eyghte parte of a myle.
1585. T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., IV. xxix. 151. Amicle, distant twentie stadias from Lacedemon.
1600. J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, Introd. 11. Meroe … in length three thousand stadios or furlongs.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. xxiii. I. 14. A Stadium or Furlong maketh of our paces 125…. Posidonius saith, That from the earth it is no lesse than fortie stadia to that height … wherein … clouds doe engender.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. ii. I. i. (1624), 357. Two Palme trees … which were barren … till they came to see one another by growing vp higher, though many Stadiums asunder.
1657. G. Thornley, Daphnis & Chloe, 82. When he had born off to sea about ten stadium’s.
1730. A. Gordon, Maffei’s Amphith., 325. The Circus … was three Stadia’s in length.
2. A race-course for foot-racing, originally a stadium in length; hence occas. foot-racing as an exercise. In mod. use often in extended sense, a place for athletic exercises.
1603. Holland, Plutarch, Explan. Words, Stadium, a race or space of ground, conteining 625. foote.
1676. H. Vernon, in Phil. Trans., XI. 579. There is the stadium yet to be seen.
1749. G. West, Pindar’s Odes, Diss. Olympic Games i. (1753), II. 10. Homer … introduces his greatest Heroes contending in the very same kind of Exercises, with those practised in the Stadium of Olympia. Ibid., vii. 61. The simple Foot-Race, named the Stadium, from the Length of the Course.
1833. Sir H. Ellis, Elgin Marbles, I. 26. One of the greatest of the public works of Athens was the stadium of Herodes Atticus.
1834. Baron Berenger (title), Particulars and Recommendations of the Stadium, or British National Arena for Manly and Defensive Exercises, Equestrian, Chivalric and Aquatic Games … at the Residence of the late Lord Cremorne.
1847. Grote, Greece, II. xxviii. IV. 96. Kylon … had gained the prize in the Olympic stadium.
1866. Alger, Solit. Nat. & Man, II. 51. We always think of the oracles of the gods as dropping in grove and grotto, not in street and stadium.
1901. Westm. Gaz., 27 Feb., 8/2. The stadium for sports, covering ten acres, is one of the chief features of the [Pan-American] Exposition [at Buffalo].
3. A stage of a process, disease, etc.
1669. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 190. The several Stadiums of this Salt gives the various apparencies of growth, maturity, and old age of Plants.
1725. Phil. Trans., XXXIII. 391. Hence those Deliriums, Coma’s, &c. so frequently threatening at this Stadium of the Disease.
1822–9. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 3), IV. 77. Hence different stadia of life seem to exercise some control [over insanity].
1860. Geo. Eliot, in Cross, Life (1885), II. 282. We are still far off our last stadium of developement.
1876. Bartholow, Mat. Med. (1879), 176. Its good effects are limited, however, to that stadium of these maladies in which the morbid action is confined to the nasal passages.
1878. Dowden, Stud. Lit., 36. A new stadium in the advance of the revolutionary idea commenced.
1888. J. Martineau, Study Relig., II. ii. II. 26. As the later stadia of her [Nature’s] developments rise above the earlier.
1895. D. Sharp, Insects, I. 158. The intervals between the ecdyses are called stadia, the first stadium being the period between hatching and the first ecdysis.
4. Surveying (See quots.) Cf. STADIA.
1861. in Abridgm. Specif. Patents, Opt., etc. Instrum. (1875), 363. An improved stadium or telemetre.
1871. Heather, Math. Instrum., III. 79. The Stadium for measuring distances in rifle practice.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl., Stadium, the leveling rod of a surveyor.
