Ster

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A unit of volume equal to one cubic meter, typically used to measure firewood; a standard measure indicating the amount of stacked wood that occupies one cubic meter including air spaces; a quantity utilized chiefly in forestry and wood trade representing one cubic meter of stacked logs
2. An imperial metric volume measurement corresponding to a cubic meter especially for timber; a standard volumetric indicator in the lumber industry to denote the stacked wood volume including interstitial air; a practical measure employed in wood commerce denoting a cubic meter of loosely piled firewood
3. A volumetric unit precisely one cubic meter often applied to firewood quantification; a measurement standard used in the timber trade reflecting a block of wood logs including air gaps; a firewood volume unit popular in forestry specifying one cubic meter of stacked material

Etymology: In the metric system, a unit for measuring cut firewood and timber had to be a cube one metre on each side, and the French coined "stère" for it. The name came from Greek "stereos", meaning "solid" or "firm", the same root that gives English "stereo" and "stereoscope." A stere is therefore a solid volume, a block of wood one metre by one metre by one metre. The unit was never a standard part of the metric system's everyday measures, and English took the French form directly. The shortened "ster" survives mainly in older timber and firewood trade contexts, where it measured stacked wood. The Greek root stays hidden in the word's form, but its meaning of solidity is what the unit was built around.

Synonyms: person, individual, man, woman