Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

stack overflow
     
         An error condition which results from attempting
        to {push} more items onto a {stack} than space has been
        allocated for.  Often, this will simply overwrite the adjacent
        memory locations causing hard-to-trace {bug}s.
     
        Stack overflow can result, for example, from an insufficient
        number of stack frames to handle hardware {interrupt}s.
     
        (1995-03-21)