Part 25

=Saturday.= This, the seventh day of the week, was dedicated by the Romans to Saturn. As, however, all the other week-days were named by the people of Northern Europe in accordance with Scandinavian mythology, one must incline to the opinion that this was named after Sæter, a water deity. Its Anglo-Saxon designation was _Sæterdæg_.

=Saturnalia.= The great winter festival of the Romans in honour of Saturn, the god of agriculture.

=Saunders Blue.= An easy corruption of the French _Cendres bleus_, “blue ashes,” calcined bluestone being the substance from which this pigment is obtained.

=Sauterne.= A French wine produced at the place of the name, in the department of Gironde.

=Saved my Bacon.= This expression originated during the Civil War, when housewives took extraordinary measures to save the bacon stored up for winter consumption from the greedy appetites of soldiers on the march.

=Savile Row.= After Dorothy Savile, who, marrying into the Burlington family, received this portion of the estate as her separate property.

=Savoy.= A cabbage originally introduced from the French department of this name.

=Savoy Street.= From the Savoy Chapel, the original of which, prior to its destruction by fire, 7th July 1864, was the only remaining portion of the ancient Savoy Palace built by Peter of Savoy, uncle to the queen of Henry III., in 1249.

=Sawney.= A variant of “Sandy.”

=Saxons.= From the _seax_, the short crooked knife with which this tribe were armed. _Sahs_ is the Old German for knife. Since the days of Daniel O’Connell Irish patriots have been fond of referring to the English people as Saxons, the natural enemies of the Celts.

=S’Blood.= A trooper’s corruption of “His Blood,” or the precious blood of the Redeemer. This species of profanity survives in the vulgar swear-word “Bloody.”

=Scales of Justice.= The ancient Egyptians believed that the good deeds of a soul after death would be weighed against his evil deeds. The Koran likewise teaches that the merits and demerits of departed souls are balanced in the scales of the Archangel Gabriel; hence the phrase now popular all the civilised world over.

=Scalper.= An Americanism for one who speculates in railroad tickets, and consequently obtains them at a reduction of their top prices.

=Scaramouch.= A character in the old Italian comedy, the prototype of the modern clown, so called from _scaramuccia_, a skirmish.

=Scarborough.= The fortified scar or precipitous cliff, so called on account of the castle built about 1136.

=Scarborough Warning.= A warning given too late to be taken advantage of. In 1557 Thomas Stafford seized Scarborough Castle before the townsfolk had the least intelligence of his approach. After taking possession he advised them to fly from the town and leave their belongings.

=Scarlet.= From the Persian _sakarlat_, “bright red.”

=Scavenger’s Daughter.= A corruption of Skevington’s Daughter, this instrument of torture being the invention of William Skevington, Lieutenant of the Tower, _temp._ Henry VIII. He called it his daughter because it emanated from his own brain. Those who were fated to suffer by it sadly consented, as the saying was, to “Kiss the Scavenger’s Daughter.”

=Schaffhausen.= Literal German for “sheep-houses” or pens.

=Schiedam.= Another name for Hollands, or Dutch gin, from the place where this native spirit is distilled.

=Schooner.= This kind of vessel received its name from the exclamation of a spectator at the time when its earliest example was launched: “Look, she schoons!”

=Schottische.= Expresses the German for a Scottish dance, a variation of the polka, in three-quarter time. The Scots, however, repudiate its invention. It is not improbable that a Scotsman, sojourning in the Fatherland, blundered into this step through his inability to dance the polka correctly.

=Scilly Isles.= After the name of one of the smallest, in proximity to a very dangerous rock similar to that of Scylla in Sicily which, according to Homer, was the abode of a monster so denominated.

=Scissors-tail.= A South American bird which in the course of its flights opens and shuts its tail for the purpose of entrapping the flies that constitute its prey.

=Scorching.= A bicycling term which, curiously enough, only came into vogue after the possibility of realising it had been removed. In the days of the old “Bone-shaker,” before rubber tyres were heard of, there would have been great likelihood of setting the wooden machine on fire by furious riding on the part of an expert.

=Scotch Reel.= See “Reel.”

=Scot-free.= A phrase derived from the old legal exaction “Scot and Lot,” the former being derived from the Anglo-Saxon _sceat_, pay, and the latter meaning a tribute allotted to every man according to his means. It was rare indeed that anyone got off “Scot-free” in ancient times.

=Scotia.= From the Celtic _scot_, wanderer, with the suffix _ia_, country; the ancient designation of the Highlands, now, with the Lowlands, called “Scotland.”

=Scotists.= Those who accepted the doctrine of John Duns Scotus relative to the Immaculate Conception, in opposition to the “Thomists.”

=Scotland.= See “Scotia.”

=Scotland Yard.= On the site of the original Scotland Yard stood an ancient palace appropriated to the Scottish kings, who were required to pay homage once a year to the English sovereign at Westminster Abbey. The last Scottish monarch so accommodated was Margaret, the sister of Henry VII.

=Scots.= See “Scotia.”

=Scottish Covenanters.= See “Covenanters.”

=Scottish Hogarth.= The surname of David Allan of Alloa, whose portraits and historical paintings occupy a high position in the esteem of his countrymen.

=Scottish Presbyterians.= The successors of the Scottish Covenanters, and founders of the Established Church of Scotland. See “Presbyterians.”

=Scowerers.= Eighteenth-century rakes who scoured the streets of London by night, overturning the “Old Charlies” in their boxes, and molesting peaceable citizens.

=Scratched Horse.= One that has its name struck out of the final list of runners in a race. Those who have backed their money on it swear a little, but no one else cares a jot for their discomfiture.

=Screw.= Colloquial for “wages.” See “Raise your Screw.”

=Screwed.= Drunk. This is simply a play on the word “Tight.”

=Screw of Tobacco.= So called because it is screwed up in a paper.

=Scriptures.= Expresses the plural of the Latin _scriptura_, a writing, from the verb _scribere_, to write. The Bible is a collection of books or writings.

=Scroll of Fame.= The word “Scroll” is a corruption of “Roll,” relative to paper, although from “scroll” we have derived the term “Schedule.” See “Roll Call.”

=Scullery.= The annexe to a kitchen, where the dishes and pots are washed up, so called from the Norman-French _esculle_, a porringer or dish. The man-servant or boy whose work lay in the scullery was in former days called a “Scullion.”

=S’Death.= A softened form of the profane oath “His Blood,” in reference to the Saviour.

=Sea of Marmora.= From the Latin _marmor_, marble, which for centuries has been quarried on a small island at its western extremity.

=Sebastopol.= From the Greek _Sebastopolis_, “august city.”

Secretary Bird. A South African bird distinguished by a tuft of feathers on each side of its head which form a fanciful resemblance to quill pens stuck behind the ear.

=Sectarians.= The general name for Dissenters attached to any one of the numerous sects or denominations outside the Established Church.

=Secular Clergy.= See “Regular Clergy.”

=Secularist.= From the Latin _seculum_, an age, a generation; one who advocates the happiness or well-being of the community during the present life, leaving the future completely out of count.

Sedan-chairs. First made at Sedan, France.

=See how it pans out.= Originally a miners’ phrase in the Far West. To separate the gold grains from the earth in which they are found a pan of water is brought into service; when the pan is shaken the gold collects at the bottom.

=Seekers.= The original designation of the Quakers, because they sought the truth with the solicitude of Nicodemus, the Jewish ruler (John iii. 1-21).

=Seething Lane.= A corruption of Sidon Lane, after the name of the first builder on the land.

=Selkirk’s Island.= Also called the isle of “Juan Fernandez.”

=Seltzer Water.= A corrupted spelling of “Seltsers,” the name of a village near Limburg in Prussia famous for its mineral springs.

=Senate.= The Upper House of the United States Congress. The term properly implies an elder, from the Latin _senis_, an old man.

=Senegambia.= The territory situated between the Senegal and Gambia Rivers.

=Sent to Coventry.= As its name implies, Coventry was in olden times a great centre of religious life, touching the number of its conventual establishments. Soldiers sent to the garrison there soon discovered that no woman would speak to them. Hence to be sent to Coventry was a great hardship, since it meant being cut off from “life” in every form, and female intercourse particularly.

=Separatists.= Another name for the Home Rulers during the lifetime of Mr Parnell. It implied virtual separation from English rule.

=Sepia.= Greek for “cuttle-fish,” from the inky secretion under the glands of which this pigment is obtained.

=September.= The seventh month of the Roman year, counting from March.

=Serjeants’ Inn.= Anciently the inn or mansion of the “Freres Serjens,” a brotherhood of Servitors to the Knights Templars hard by. It was these who performed the ordinary household duties in the Temple.

=Serle Street.= After Henry Serle of Lincoln’s Inn, the owner of considerable property in this neighbourhood when the parish of St Clement Danes was very different to what it is now.

=Sermon Lane.= Anciently “Sheremoniers’ Lane,” so called from the money shearers or clippers’ office adjacent to the first London Mint.

=Serpentine.= An artificial winding lake formed out of the pools and the Tyburn in Hyde Park in 1733. See “Bayswater.”

=Servia.= The country of the _Suevi_, a people driven by the Romans into that portion of Germany now called “Suabia,” until after further migrations northward they settled in Sweden.

=Servites.= This religious Order grew out of the pious example of seven Florentine merchants who in 1283 assembled each evening for devotional exercises in a lady chapel and styled themselves “The Religious Servants of the Holy Virgin.” The London house of the Community is in the Fulham Road.

=Set her Cap at him.= With the coquetry peculiar to her sex, a female always put on her most becoming cap to attract the male visitor whom she favoured. Now that caps are no longer worn she resorts to other devices, but the old expression survives.

=Set the Thames on fire.= A “temse” was the old name for a sieve, agreeably to the French _tamis_ and the Italian _tamiso_, which terms express the same implement. A sifter would require to work very hard indeed to ignite his sieve. Accordingly a bystander often said to him touching his apparent laziness: “You’ll never set the temse on fire!” Its punning

=Seven Dials.= A once notorious thieves’ neighbourhood, which received its name from a stone column presenting seven dials or faces, from which the same number of streets radiated. This, originally set up to mark the limits of St Giles’s and St Martin’s parishes, was removed in 1763, owing to the erroneous idea that a large sum of money lay buried beneath it.

=Seven Sisters’ Road.= This long road, extending from Holloway to Tottenham, received its name from seven trees planted in Page Green in the latter parish by the Sisters Page. Local tradition has it that one of these was a cripple, and the tree planted by her grew up deformed.

=Seventh Day Baptists.= See “Sabbatarians.”

=Saxagesima Sunday.= Approximately the sixtieth day before Easter.

=Seymour Place.= After one of the family names of the Portmans, owners of the estate.

=Seymour Street.= Far removed from Seymour Place, this has no connection with the Portman family, having received its name from the first builder on the land.

=Shadwell.= A corruption of “St Chad’s Well,” a reputed holy well discovered hereabouts in ancient days.

=Shaft Alley.= See “St Andrew Undershaft.”

=Shaftesbury Avenue.= After Anthony Ashley Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftsbury, who performed the opening ceremony of this new thoroughfare shortly before his death in 1885.

=Shah Diamond.= A gem weighing 86 carats, long the property of Chosroes I., Shah of Persia, who, dying in 579, presented it to a Khan of the Tartars, from whom it descended to Ivan III., the grandfather of Ivan the Terrible, the first Czar of Russia.

=Shakers.= An American sect, first heard of in 1774, at Albany in the state of New York, so called from the convulsive movements of the hands and arms as part of their peculiar form of worship. Its founder was Ann Lee, self-styled “Mother Ann,” of Manchester, who, receiving little encouragement for her religious tenets in her native land, emigrated with a few disciples to the New World.

=Shalloon.= Originally manufactured at Chalons in France.

=Shanty.= This term for a hut or cabin first obtained currency in Canada, having been derived from the French settlers, who gave the name _chantier_ to a hut erected in a dockyard under construction.

=Shattered Prices.= An Americanism for “reduced prices.”

=“She” Bible.= See “‘He’ Bible.”

=Sheen.= See “Richmond.”

=Sheet Anchor.= A corruption of “Shote Anchor,” an extra heavy one, that can be expeditiously shot out for the greater security of a vessel under stress of weather. To act as a sheet anchor to a man is to be his mainstay or chief dependence.

=Sheffield.= From the River Sheaf, on the confluence of which and the Don the town stands.

=Shekel Day.= The day (27th May) set apart every year throughout the Jewish world for the collection of a shekel--a shilling, franc mark, half rouble, or “quarter,” according to the currency of the individual country--in support of the Zionist Movement for the re-colonisation of Palestine. The word “shekel” is from the Hebrew _shekal_, to weigh.

=Shepherdess Walk.= A name reminiscent of the days when the entire district between Finsbury and “Merrie Islington” was open fields.

=Shepherd’s Bush.= Pleasantly pastoral as the name is, this district is now wholly built over. A “Shepherd’s bush” was a hillock covered with soft vegetation on which he reclined while tending his flocks.

=Shepherd’s Market.= The site of a former weekly market, the land of which, like that of Market Street and Shepherd Street, was owned by a person of this name.

=Shepperton.= A corruption of “Shepherd’s Town”; whether derived from the name of the landowner, or because the district was originally given up to sheep-folds, is not known.

=Sherbet.= The national beverage in Arabia, so called from _shariba_, to drink, because it is taken at a single draught; hence the same name applied to effervescing liquors in this country.

=Sherry.= An English corruption of “Sherris,” a dry wine exported from Xeres in Spain.

=Sherry Cobbler.= An American drink which, in addition to the ordinary ingredients of a “Cobbler,” contains a dash of sherry.

=Shetland Isles.= Anciently described as _Hyaltland_, the Norse for “Viking Land,” the name was softened into Zetland, and finally as we now have it.

=She Wolf of France.= A name that will ever cling to the memory of Isabella, the queen of Edward II., whom she caused to be murdered most foully through the instrumentality of her paramour, the Earl of Mortimer. This monster of iniquity lies buried in Christ Church, Newgate Street.

=Shift.= An old name for a chemise, denoting a shift or change of linen; also an industrial term for a change of men at certain hours, so that work can be carried on uninterruptedly by day and night.

=Shillelagh.= A oaken sapling fashioned into a cudgel for self-defence, so called from a wood in Ireland celebrated for its oaks.

=Shilling.= This silver coin was of considerable value to our ancestors, who always sounded it as a test of its genuineness. Hence, as the “ringing coin,” the Anglo-Saxons gave it the name of _scilling_, which, like the modern German _schilling_, is derived from the verb _schallen_, to sound.

=Shinplaster.= An Americanism for a bank-note. During the Civil War paper money was so much depreciated in value that its possessors could not easily negotiate it at any price. Finding this to be his own case, an old soldier philosophically used his bank-notes as plasters for a wounded shin.

=Ship.= A tavern sign commemorative of the circumnavigation of the globe by Sir Francis Drake; also a technical term in the printing trade for the compositors working together in a particular room or department, being an abbreviation of “Companionship.”

=Shire.= A portion of land scired or sheared off under the Saxon Heptarchy for the creation of an earldom.

=Shoe Lane.= This name has no connection with shoemakers, or cordwainers as they were anciently called. As an offshoot of Fleet Street, the great thoroughfare of taverns, this was anciently “Show Lane,” lined with booths and shows like a country fair.

=Shooter.= An Americanism for a revolver.

=Shooters’ Hill.= A corruption of “Suitors’ Hall,” so called from the suitors or place hunters who came this way when Henry VIII. had his Court at Greenwich.

=Shooting Iron.= A Far West term for a rifle.

=Shop.= Theatrical slang for an engagement.

=Shop-lifting.= This phrase for abstracting goods from a shop counter had its origin in the printer’s technical term “Lifting.”

=Shoreditch.= All other suggested derivations notwithstanding, this district really received its name from the manor of Sir John Soerditch, a wealthy citizen, and a favourite of Edward the Black Prince, by whose side he fought at Crecy and Poitiers.

=Show.= Theatrical slang for a performance.

=Shrewsbury.= See “Shropshire.”

=Shropshire.= This name expresses in a roundabout way the shire of Shrewsbury, the Anglo-Saxon _Scrobbesburgh_ that grew up around an ancient castle among the scrubs or shrubs, softened by the Normans into _Sloppesbury_, which lent its name to what is now “Salop,” and finally corrupted into Shrewsbury.

=Shrove Tuesday.= A corruption of “Shrive Tuesday” when all good Catholics confessed their sins in preparation for receiving the blest ashes on the following morning.

=Siberia.= The country ruled from the ancient town of Sibir, the capital of the Tartars, and which contained the palace of the renowned Kutsheen Khan, the ruins of which are still visible.

=Sicily.= From the _Siculi_, a tribe who became masters of the island, expelling the _Sicanii_, its ancient inhabitants.

=Sick.= A word uniformly used throughout the United States in the place of “ill,” as in our own country. This is not an Americanism, but good honest English, having been introduced to the New World by the Pilgrim Fathers who sailed in the _Mayflower_. Both in the Bible and in Shakespeare sick, not ill, is employed. This is one of the few instances in which the Americans have preserved a word true to its original meaning.

=Sidmouth Street.= After Lord Sidmouth, a popular Minister at the accession of George IV., when this street was first built upon.

=Side Walk.= An Americanism for the English “pavement” and the Scottish “causeway.”

=Siedlitz Powders.= From Siedlitz in Bohemia, whence, like the celebrated mineral waters of the same name, they are obtained.

=Sienna.= A pigment obtained from the native _Terra di Sienna_ in Italy.

=Sign on.= An industrial phrase for signing one’s name in a book on arriving to commence the day’s work. The like procedure at the day’s close is styled “Sign off.”

=Silhouette.= After Etienne de Silhouette, Comptroller of Finance under Louis XV., who was the first to have his features outlined from a side view on black paper.

=Sillery.= A champagne produced from the extensive vineyards of the Marquis de Sillery.

=Silver Captain.= The sobriquet of Admiral Sir Henry Digby from the large haul he on 15th October 1799 made by the capture of a Spanish treasure ship laden with dollars, his own share of the prize money amounting to £40,730, 18s. This he attributed to a fortunate dream, in which he repeatedly heard a voice exclaim: “Digby! Digby! steer to the northward!”

=Silver-tongued Sylvester.= John Sylvester, the translator of Du Barta’s “Divine Week and Works,” so styled on account of his harmonious verse.

=Simple Life.= A term which has come into vogue, both in England and America, since the publication of the Rev. Charles Wagner’s remarkable book “The Simple Life,” in advocacy of plain living, three or four years ago.

=Single-speech Hamilton.= The sobriquet of William Gerard Hamilton, Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland. He delivered on 13th November 1775 a speech which electrified the House, but after that memorable first effort he never spoke again.

=Sing Small.= A corruption of “Sink Small,” meaning to be lowered in the estimation of those to whom one has made a vain boast.

=Sinking Fund.= One that provides for the annual reduction of a National Debt.

=Sinner-saved Huntingdon.= William Huntingdon, the theologian and preacher, who, having led a wild life in his youth, made amends for these delinquencies in the full vigour of manhood.

=Sirree.= A vulgar American corruption of “Sir,” corresponding to the old English “Sirrah.” Originating at New York, it is now quite a common thing for people in the States generally to answer: “Yes, sirree,” and “No, sirree.”

=Sise Lane.= A corruption of St Osyth’s Lane, after an ancient church in it, now removed.

=Sixteen String Jack.= Jack Rann, the highwayman, hanged in 1791, so called from the sixteen tags he wore on the knees of his breeches.

=Six-shooter.= An Americanism for a six-chambered revolver.

=Skagerrack.= Expresses the crooked strait between the _Skagen_, the plural of the Gothic _skaga_, a promontory, between Jutland and Norway.

=Skald.= An ancient northern bard or minstrel. The word is Scandinavian for “poet.”

=Skied.= An artists’ term for a picture hung on the highest row, just under the ceiling, at any exhibition, where no one can look at it closely.

=Skinner Street.= Stands on land belonging to the Skinners’ Company.

=Skylarking.= Originally an American seaman’s term for rough sport among the ship’s rigging and tops.

=Sky Parlor.= An Americanism for an attic.

=Sky Pilot.= An American naval expression for a ship’s chaplain. The allusion is obvious.

=Sky-scraper.= The name given in the United States to a building of lofty proportions, often running to as many as thirty storeys. Viewing these from Brooklyn Bridge it would really seem as if the New Yorkers were anxious to scour the heavens out of their top windows.