sternian

adj

1. Of or relating to Laurence Sterne, Irish novelist.

   “They were as compact as his college work had been Sternian in its discursiveness.”

   “So too does his account of the master's pocket watch, another Sternian acquisition.”

   “The final volume, moreover, contains a highly self-conscious, Sternian passage suggesting that the work was interrupted by some political misfortune befalling the narrator: the latter's uncle, Jean-Claude Ann'Quin Bredouille, has decided to burn the remaining memoirs and to return to his village.”

   “In the opening of Bednyi Leandr, for example, the humorous voice of the narrator engages in a synchronic reflection on the act of writing in the Sternian manner.”

2. Of or relating to Howard Stern (born 1954), American radio and television personality.

   “In fact, it is this inherited refrain, blurted out in the same tone of voice, that serves as a kind of mantra for the entire Sternian enterprise: a perpetually indicting bee in Howard's bonnet (and that hairdo is definitely a bonnet).”

   “He wants to see what's bouncing around inside your blouse or dangling down your inside trouser leg and to refuse him is to take refuge in a modesty that, in a Sternian universe, is almost unbecoming.”

   “But they add two other elements to their mix: a healthy helping of Howard Sternian locker-room talk and, much more important, a startlingly egalitarian ethic of listener participation.”