When beer is gulped from a stein, what the drinker holds in his hand is, from an etymological point of view, a stone, or at least an earthenware mug that is stonelike in its weight and texture. This German word for stone was adopted by English as a synonym for beer mug in the mid nineteenth century. Long before this, however, stein had become familiar to English speakers thanks to prominent German surnames such as Steinmetz and Steinberg, surnames that mean, respectively stone cutter and stone mountain. The given name Stanley parallels these German surnames in so far as it derives from the Old English stan (a close cousin of stein and the immediate ancestor of stone) and leak (meaning wood).