Category: Word of the Day – S

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin semisomnis, semisomnus, (from semi- + somnus (sleep) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“… ‘‘ Time sadly overcometh all things,” says Sir Thomas Brown, ‘‘and is now dominant, and sitteth upon a sphinx, and looketh unto Memphis and old Thebes; while his sister Oblivion reclineth semisomnous on a pyramid, gloriously triumphing, making puzzles of Titanian inscriptions, and turning old glories into dreams. History sinketh beneath her cloud. …”

From: The Superhuman Origin of the Bible: inferred from itself
By Henry Rogers, 1873

ETYMOLOGY
coined by Jonathan Swift as the name of an imaginary animal of approximately human size mentioned in Gulliver’s Travels 

EXAMPLE
“… It now began to be known and talked of in the neighbourhood, that my master had found a strange animal in the field, about the bigness of a splacknuck, but exactly shaped in every part like a human creature; which it likewise imitated in all its actions; seemed to speak in a little language of its own, had already learned several words of theirs, went erect upon two legs, was tame and gentle, would come when it was called, do whatever it was bid, had the finest limbs in die world, and a complexion fairer than a nobleman’s daughter of diree years old. …”

From: Gulliver’s Travels
By Jonathan Swift, 1726

ETYMOLOGY
from shit + breech

EXAMPLE
“… Reverend Alderman Atkins (the shit-breech) his speech,: to Mr. Warner the venerable Mayor of London, the wise aldermen, and most judicious Common-Councell men, in relation to the present affaires in Kent, Essex, and Surrey, concerning the Scots invasion, and His Majesties interest. Published for the honour of my Lord Mayor and Common-Councell men. …”

From: Title

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin salarium (salary) + -ate

EXAMPLE
“… The Sanhedrim of Israel being the Supream, and a constant Court of Judicature could not choose but be exceeding gainful. The Senate of the Bean in Athens, because it was but annual, was moderately salariated, but that of the Areopagites being for life bountifully; what advantages the Senators of Lacedemon had, where there was little mony or use of it, was in honour for life. …”

From: The Common-Wealth of Oceana
By James Harrington, 1656

ETYMOLOGY
irregular from Stentor (a Greek warrior in the Trojan war, ‘whose voice was as powerful as fifty voices of other men’) + -ic

EXAMPLE
“… And to chain up the tongues of five hundred cackling gossips he held, and with great reason, an exploit worth recording. Indeed he appears to have taken the most effectual method with them, that is, to out-clamour them: For thus he measures out his own Stentoronic voice. …”

From: The Doctrine of Grace: or, the Office and Operations of the Holy Spirit vindicated from the Insults of Infidelity, and the Abuses of Fanaticism
By William Warburton, 1763

ETYMOLOGY
Latin, from Greek σκολόπενδρα (skolopendra) (centipede)

EXAMPLE (for n. 3.)
“… I have bought it gentlemen, and you in a mist
Shall see what I paid for it, thou hast not drunke yet:
Nere feare the reckning man, more wine , you varletts,
And call your Mistris, your Scolopendra
If we like her complexion, we may dine here. …”

From: The Gamester
By James Shirley, 1633

PRONUNCIATION
skol-oh-PEN-druh

ETYMOLOGY
from seven + the plural of night  

EXAMPLE
“… Among other, none was either more grateful to the beholders, or more noble in it selfe, then iusts, both with sword & launce, mainteined for a seuen-night together: wherein that Nation doth so excel, both for comelines and hablenes, that from neighbour-countries they ordinarilye come, some to striue, some to learne, some to behold. …”

From: The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia
By Sir Philip Sidney, 1590

ETYMOLOGY
from supernaculum (a drink to be consumed to the last drop; a wine of the highest quality; anything excellent of its kind) + -ar

EXAMPLE
“…The last deposit will be made at Josh Hudson’s, to- morrow evening, when some spirited betting is expected. Both men are well, and something supernacular is expected …”

From: The Morning Chronicle
October 30, 1828
The Ring. Dick Curtis and Edwards

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin sterquilinium (a dunghill), (from stercus (dung))

EXAMPLE
“… The itching of scriblers, was the scab of the time; It is just so now, that any triobolary pasquiller evry tressis agaso, any sterquilinious raskall, is licenc’d to throw dirt in the faces of Soveraign Princes in open printed language: But I hope the times will mend, and your Man slo if he hath any face, you have so well corrected him, So I rest …”

From: A New Volume of Letters
By James Howell, 1647
Letter to Dr. D. Featley, 1 Aug. 1644

ETYMOLOGY
from muss (a game in which small objects are thrown down to be scrambled for; a scramble);
the verb muss occurs in Lincolnshire dialect ( to scramble for, to take forcibly and by surprise)

EXAMPLE
“… because this their Cadet, from his very Cradle, had shewed so strong a Propension to hoarding, that being but five or six Years old, he denied himself the Enjoyment of such Knicknacks as were given him, and would scramble for and smuss those of other Children, his Play-fellows; yet was he so very careful and saving of his own, that he let his Fruit and Sweatmeats spoil and grow mouldy rather than he would eat them. …”

From: Histoire du Prince Titi,
A.R. The history of Prince Titi, a royal allegory
By Themiseul de Saint-Hyacinthe
Translated by Eliza Stanley, 1736