Category: Word of the Day – S

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

ETYMOLOGY
from Old English stǽlwierðe, from stǽl (place) + wierðe (worth – adj.);

From OED: “The length of the vowel in the first syllable seems to be authenticated by some of the early Middle English forms; the shortening of ǽ to ă in the first element of a compound is normal. The Old English stǽl(the quantity of which is certain from the three occurrences in poetry) appears not to be immediately connected with the synonymous stæl with short vowel (dat. stale); according to some scholars it represents a contraction of Old Teutonic *staþl- or *stađl-, the relation of Old English stǽl to staðol foundation being considered parallel with that of mǽl speech to the synonymous mæðel. The 13th century form staðelwurðe, occurring only once strongly confirms this view.
The early Middle English forms with medial e, stele-, steale-, stalewurðe are difficult to account for.“

EXAMPLE (for n.)
“… Such semblaunt to þat segge semly ho made
Wyth stille stollen countenaunce, þat stalworth to plese,
Þat al forwondered watz þe wyȝe, and wroth with hymseluen,
Bot he nolde not for his nurture nurne hir aȝaynez,
Bot dalt with hir al in daynté, how-se-euer þe dede turned
towrast. …”

From: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Author unknown; a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English alliterative verse;
Edited by Sir Israel Gollancz through the Early English Text Society, 1940

ETYMOLOGY
from slidder (to slide, to slip) + -y

EXAMPLE (for adj. 3)
“… Full slyddrie is the sait that thay on sit,
And for thair fault till Hell sune sall thay flit,
For suddanlie thay sall die with mischeif,
Thair distructioun salbe without releif. …”

From: A compendious book of godly and spiritual songs : commonly known as ‘The gude and godlie ballatis’
By John Wedderburn , Robert Wedderburn
Reprinted from the edition of 1567
Edited by Alexander Ferrier Mitchell, 1897
Quam bonus Deus Israell. Psal. lxxiij

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin scortator, agent-noun from scortari (to associate with harlots) + -ory

EXAMPLE
“… Delights of Wisdom Concerning Conjugial Love
After which Follow Pleasures of Insanity Concerning Scortatory Love …”

From: A Translation of “De Amore Conjugiali“
By Emanuel Swedenborg
Translated by Alfred Acton, 1794

ETYMOLOGY
earlier form of smuggle (vb.)

EXAMPLE
“… Which computation is sufficiently justified by the Customs of the Three Kingdoms, whose intrinsick value are thought to be near a Million per annum, viz. Six hundred thousand pounds, payable to the King; 100 thousand Pounds, for the charges of Collecting, &c. Two hundred thousand pounds smuckled by the Merchants, and one Hundred thousand pounds gained by the Farmers; according to common Opinion, and Mens Sayings: And this agrees also with that proportion, or part of the whole Trade of the World, which I have estimated the Subjects of the King of England to be possessed of; viz, of about Ten of Forty Five Millions. …”

From: Political Arithmetick
By Sir William Petty, 1691