stearin It also stearine, stearing, stearn, steerin(e), steering, stern [phonetics unavailable]. OED stern sb1 'the tern' (c800-1896). Northern common tern (Sterna hirundo); arctic tern (S. paradisaea); PAYTRICK; freq in place-names.
1870 Can Naturalist v, 409 [Wilson's tern and arctic tern] Both are called 'steerings' by the settler—a name which their cry suggests. Some few small islands round the coasts of Newfoundland have been named 'Steering' Islands from the number of terns which breed on them. 1878 Nfld Pilot 50 Steering rocks. Ibid 122 Stern rocks. Ibid 296 Stearing island. 1896 J A Folklore ix, 36 Steerins—marine birds. 1907 TOWNSEND 318 'Steerine.' Common summer resident in southern Labrador, 1951 PETERS & BURLEIGH 244 Fishermen, and others, do not distinguish between Arctic and Common Tern, but call all of them 'Stearin.' 1959 MCATEE 38 ~ common Tern. T 410-67 I've seen stearins, I seen a one come in here last year and went down on the bottom. 1975 COOK 87 You [stop] to point out the bank swallows, the terns. Steerings, we used to call them. 1981 GUY 118 Soon the steerins will come along diving and fluttering after the liver which is drifting into range. Ready your rocks. Heave at steerins.
