From Latinstadium(“a measure of length, a race course”) (commonly one-eighth of a Roman mile; translated in early English Bibles by furlong), from Ancient Greekστάδιον(stádion, “a measure of length, a running track”), especially the track at Olympia, which was one stadium in length. The Greek word may literally mean "fixed standard of length" (from στάδιος(stádios, “firm, fixed”), from Proto-Indo-European*steh₂-, whence also stand and Latinstare). Doublet of stade, stadion, andestadio.
2013 June 18, Simon Romero, “Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders”, in New York Times:
In a convulsion that has caught many in Brazil and beyond by surprise, waves of protesters denounced their leaders for dedicating so many resources to cultivating Brazil’s global image by building stadiums for international events, when basic services like education and health care remain woefully inadequate.
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym;Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy:[…], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire:[…] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 2, member 3, page 245:
Dionysiodorus[…]sent a letter ad superos after he was dead, from the centre of the earth, to signify what distance the same centre was from the superficies of the same, viz. 42,000 stadiums[…].
A kind of telemeter for measuring the distance of an object of known dimensions, by observing the angle it subtends.
(surveying) a graduated rod used to measure the distance of the place where it stands from an instrument having a telescope, by observing the number of the graduations of the rod that are seen between certain parallel wires (stadia wires) in the field of view of the telescope.
Borrowed from Latinstadium(“a measure of length, commonly one-eighth of a Roman mile, furlong; a race course”), from Ancient Greekστάδιον(stádion, “a measure of length, a running track”), especially the track at Olympia, which was one stadium in length. The Greek word may literally mean "fixed standard of length" (from στάδιος(stádios, “firm, fixed”), from Proto-Indo-European*steh₂-.
“stadium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“stadium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
stadium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London:Macmillan and Co.
to run a foot-race: stadium currere (Off. 3. 10. 42)
“stadium”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia
“stadium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
“stadium”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin