Also 6 sterledey, 7 sterledy, 8 starlett, sterled, -ett, -id, (? pl. sterlitz), 8–9 sterlit, (9 sterelet). [a. Russ. стерлядь sterlyadi. Cf. G. and F. sterlet.] A small species of sturgeon, Acipenser ruthenus, found in Russia.
1591. G. Fletcher, Russe Commw. (Hakl. Soc.), 12. Of ickary or cavery, a great quantitie is made … out of … the severiga, and the sterledey.
1698. New Deser. Moscovy, 22. The Severinga or Sterledy, somewhat in fashion and tast like a Sturgeon, but not so thick nor long.
1698. A. Brand, Emb. Muscovy to China, 176. Among the Fish, the Sterlet is counted one of the most delicious in Russia.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. II. xix. 83. The principal sorts are sturgeon, starlett, beluga and assotra.
1762. trans. Busching’s Syst. Geog., I. 380. The Kosteri has rougher scales than the Sturgeon or the Sterled.
1782. P. H. Bruce, Mem., IV. 112. Some vessels going for Petersburgh, with live fish, called sterlit,… were beat to pieces.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 74. Different sorts of sturgeon … viz. the common sturgeon, the beluga, the sterlid, &c.
1881. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., V. 46. The best isinglass is yielded by the Sterlet and by Acipenser huso.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 340. Hatched sterlit preserved in spirits.
1915. B. Digby, in Travel, July, 23. Sterelet, one of the numerous kinds of fishes found in Baikal, is usually smoked and eaten raw.
attrib. 1860. Wraxall, Life in Sea, v. 124. Prince Potemkin is said to have frequently paid three hundred roubles for a Sterlet soup.
