Glossary of Colloquialisms
(Starting with "S")
By
Natalya Belinsky,
"Fluent English Educational Project"
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S&D
(Abbreviation)
1. (trade and shipping) Special and
Differential Treatment.
Examples:
1) S&D Dollies are the best solution
for moving high capaicty loads.
2) Order any 4 products and pay no
s&d charges on the 5th product!
2. (programming) Spybot Search and
Destroy.
Example:
SpyBot-S&D is an adware and spyware detection
and removal tool, easy to use and multi-lingual.
SA
(SMS) essay
SARS
- Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome
- super
pneumonia
- Asian
pneumonia
- Severe
- Acute
- Respiratory
- Syndrome
- super
- pneumonia
- superpneumonia
- Asian
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Synonyms:
super pneumonia, Asian pneumonia
Example:
SARS is believed to be the first new, often life-threatening
disease to emerge in decades that can be spread
from one person to another. ("Washington
Post", Mar. 2003)
SAT
- S.A.T.
- Scholastic
Aptitude Test
- Scholastic
- Aptitude
- Test
Scholastic Aptitude Test - standardized
test required for acceptance
to many colleges and universities in the United
States. (Some schools allow the ACT to
be substituted for the SAT. The stated purpose
of the SAT is to determine if a student has
the capability to perform college level work.)
SETE
(web, chat) smiling ear to ear
SIT
(chat) stay in touch
SITD
(chat) still in the dark
SMS
(web, chat, mobile connection) short message
service
SOHF
(chat) sense of humour failure
SOME1
(chat) someone
SWALK
(chat) sealed with a loving kiss
SWG
(chat) scientific wild guess
Sadducee
1. A member of an ancient Jewish sect characterized
by its literal interpretation of the Bible.
2. Sadducees - an early Jewish sub-group
whose origins and ideas are uncertain. It probably
arose early in the 2nd century B.C.E. and ceased
to exist when the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE.
Sadducees supported priestly authority and rejected
traditions not directly grounded in the Pentateuch,
such as the concept of personal, individual life
after death. They are often depicted as in conflict
with the Pharisees.
Example:
It is of particular interest to us today that the
rivalry of Pharisees and Sadducees extended to their
differing views concerning the way time should be
measured.
Etymology:
The Sadducees are widely assumed to
have been named after Zadok, a priest
in the time of King David and King Solomon, although
a less accepted theory alleges that they took their
name from a later Zadok who lived
in the second century B.C. Alternately, some scholars
have theorized that the name "Sadducee"
comes from the Hebrew "saddiq",
meaning "the righteous."
History:
The Pharisees and the Sadducees
are the two most well-known Jewish sects
from the time of Yeshua the Messiah. Both, to some
extent, opposed Christ during his ministry and received
condemnation from him. All of our knowledge of the
Pharisees and Sadducees
has been derived from three main sources: the works
of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus; the early
rabbinical writings (200 A.D. and later); and the
New Testament. Recently, however, references to
these parties have also been found in some of the
Dead Sea Scrolls unearthed at Qumran.
Salmon Day
The experience of feeling as if you spent the entire
day swimming upstream, only to get screwed and die
in the end.
Example:
I've had a real Salmon Day today. I am not sure
I'm alive.
Sam Hill
- Sam
- Hill
- go
like Sam Hill
- run
like Sam Hill
- what
in the Sam Hill...?
- what
in the Sam Hill
A soft replacement for hell or damn.
Example:
An article in the "New England Magazine"
in December 1889 entitled "Two Centuries
and a Half in Guilford Connecticut" mentioned
that, "Between 1727 and 1752 Mr. Sam. Hill
represented Guilford in forty-three out of forty-nine
sessions of the Legislature, and when he was gathered
to his fathers, his son Nathaniel reigned in his
stead" and a footnote queried whether this
might be the source of the "popular Connecticut
adjuration to 'Give 'em Sam Hill'?"
Etymology, related phrases:
Used in 19th century America by frontiersmen, especially
when they needed to clean up their language in the
presence of ladies. First used in print in 1839;
in America, "Seattle Newspaper".
Jim Hill, the legendary "empire builder",
whose railroads, including the Great Northern, remained
his last monument, was a man given to notable rages
when anyone dared to oppose one of his grandiose
schemes. So frequent were these tirades, that the
paper carried as a standing headline: "Jim
Hill is as mad as Sam Hill". Other phrases
include "go like Sam Hill"
or "run like Sam Hill",
in reference to Samuel Hill, a Colonel of
Guilford, Connecticut, who perpetually ran for political
office in the late 19th c., but was never elected.
But there is no unanimity as to who in the Sam
Hill this Sam Hill was. Another version
says that Sam was a railroad magnate who
lived in Seattle, planned the Pacific Coast Highway
and had a replica of Stonehenge built for his own
amusement.
Well, as the phrase "what in the Sam
Hill...?" is known to have been used
in New York in 1839, we can disregard both the Cockney
and Seattle origins. This leaves us with the Connecticut
Colonel. Unfortunately for this version, there is
no evidence that any such person ever lived.
Sedna
an astronomical object that what could be the Solar
System's 10th planet.
Example:
These three panels show the first detection of the
faint distant object dubbed "Sedna".
History, etymology:
Claims in newspapers that a group at Caltech have
found the mysterious and long-sought tenth planet
are probably wide of the mark, since the object
is almost certain to be classed instead as a planetesimal,
of which there are many out there in the Kuiper
Belt beyond Neptune. (Some astronomers now think
that the ninth planet, Pluto, should also be included
in this group.) But it's the name provisionally
given to this new object, Sedna, that's
interesting. Both in astronomy and science fiction,
the traditional name for the tenth planet has been
Persephone, based on the presumption that
we would continue to name planets after classical
mythological figures (though the names of the planets
are all from Roman deities, such as Mars, Jupiter
and Saturn, while Persephone is Greek). Instead,
the Caltech group have borrowed the name of an Inuit
goddess of the Ocean, or the Sea. Other objects
of similar size in the Belt have also been named
from other spiritual traditions, such as Quaoar,
named after a creation deity of the Californian
Tongva people, and Varuna, from the Hindu deity
who keeps the sun moving.
See which way the cat jumps
- See
- which way the cat jumps
- way
- cat
- jump
Wait and see what happens.
Etymology: A cruel sport in the olden days
was to place a cat in a tree as a target; the "sportsman"
would wait to see which way the cat jumped before
pulling the trigger.
Seeing is believing
- One
picture is worth a thousand words
- Seeing
- believing
- see
- believe
- picture
- worth
- be
worth
- thousand
- word
This saying means that you can't necessarily believe
that something exists or is true unless you see
the evidence for yourself.
Example:
"You should have seen the fish I caught,"
Eddie said. "It was this big!" He spread
his arms as wide apart as he could. "Yeah,
right," said Daniel, shaking his head. He knew
that Eddie exaggerated a lot. "I'm not kidding!"
exclaimed Eddie. He ran in the house, then staggered
out holding a fish almost as big as he was. "Wow!"
said Daniel. "Seeing is believing!"
Shangri-la
- eden
- paradise
- nirvana
- heaven
- promised
land
- promised
- promise
- land
[shang-grih-LAH]
1. A remote beautiful imaginary place where
life approaches perfection; utopia.
2. A remote, usually idyllic hideaway.
Synonyms: eden, paradise, nirvana, heaven,
promised land.
Example:
From the air, the city rising out of the mist looked
like a Shangri-la, but once on the ground we were
besieged by the realities of life in the teeming
third-world capital.
History:
In James Hilton's 1933 novel "Lost
Horizon", Shangri-La was
the name of a fictional land of peace and eternal
youth in the mountains of Tibet. Hilton invented
both the place and the name, but over the years
people generalized the name and applied it to several
real or imaginary locations. In 1942, President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced that a secret
World War II bombing mission had taken off from
"Shangri-la" (later revealed
to be the aircraft carrier U.S.S. "Hornet").
That same year, FDR also used Shangri-la
as the name for the new presidential retreat in
rural Maryland - a spot now better known as Camp
David.
Slashdot effect
- Slashdot
- effect
- slashdotting
- slashdotted
- /.ed
- .ed
An Internet term which refers to the huge influx
of Internet traffic to a website as a result of
its being mentioned on Slashdot, a
popular technology news and information site. It
can be generalized to refer to any time a popular
website links to another one. Typically, less robust
sites are unable to cope with the huge increase
in traffic and become unavailable - either their
bandwidth is consumed or their servers are unable
to cope with the high strain.
Example:
What is the "Slashdot Effect?". When "Slashdot"
links a site, often a lot of readers will hit the
link to read the story or see the purty pictures.
Details:
Slashdot consists of submitted articles
and a self-moderated discussion on each story. In
response to the stories, large masses of readers
simultaneously rush to view referenced sites. The
ensuing flood of page requests, known as a slashdotting,
often exceeds the ability of the site to respond
in a timely manner, rendering the site slashdotted
and, for many visitors, unavailable for a time,
occasionally exceeding the site's bandwidth limitations
or causing servers to slow down. "Slashdotted"
is sometimes abbreviated as "/.ed".
Major news sites or corporate websites are typically
unaffected by the Slashdot effect
because they have been engineered to serve large
numbers of requests. Websites that usually fall
victim are smaller sites hosted on home servers
or those with many large images or movie files.
These websites often become unavailable within just
a few minutes of an article's posting on Slashdot,
even before any comments have been posted. Few definitive
numbers (see http://ssadler.phy.bnl.gov/adler/SDE/SlashDotEffect.html,
http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~mjuric/universe/slashdotting/)
exist regarding the precise magnitude of the Slashdot
effect, but estimates put the peak of the
mass influx of page requests at anywhere from several
hundred to several thousand hits per second. The
flood usually peaks when the article is at the top
of Slashdot's front page and gradually
subsides as the story is superseded by newer items.
Traffic usually remains at elevated levels until
the article is pushed off the front page, which
can take from 12 to 18 hours after its initial posting.
However, certain things get bogged down for longer
time. This all depends on the number of people posting,
and for how long the story stays interesting. "The
wedding proposal of Slashdot founder CmdrTaco"
(http://slashdot.org/articles/02/02/14/143254.shtml?tid=166)
and "The announcement of Windows 2000 and
Windows NT 4 source code leaks" (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/12/2114228&tid=109)
were a couple of more active stories. When the targeted
website has a community-based structure, the term
can also refer to the secondary effect of having
a large group of users suddenly setting up accounts
and starting to participate in the community. While
this would normally be considered a good thing,
it is generally viewed with disdain by the prior
members, as quite often the sheer number of new
people brings a lot of the unwanted aspects of Slashdot
along with it, such as incessant trolling,
vandalism, and newbie-like behavior. The Slashdot
effect is similar to a denial of service
attack, in that both can cripple or eliminate access
to websites. However, while a denial of service
attack is a deliberate, malicious onslaught aimed
at damaging computer systems and harming the victim's
livelihood, the Slashdot effect is
an unintended consequence of Slashdot's
popularity that usually subsides fairly quickly.
Synonym: flash crowd
Spanish wood
1. Hard reddish-brown wood of the mahogany
tree.
Synonym: mahogany.
2. (Brit.) A kind of sweet (London,
1930s). It looked like twigs, which were chewed.
It turns out to be raw liquorice root.
History:
Liquorice is still sometimes called
Spanish in Yorkshire because the local crop
(the ancient centre of the trade is Pontefract)
was by the 19th century supplemented by liquorice
imported from Spain. In Wiltshire in the
1950s it was supplied to farms in bags as an animal
feed supplement.
Spider hole
the American military term used in news reports
for the hole in which Saddam Hussein was captured.
Example: Blood feud ends in the spider hole.
Etymology:
It goes back at least to 1941, to the period of
the WW II.
Sproutini
A cocktail made from vermouth, gin and sprouts;
developed by Chef James Martin.
Example:
Those looking for a cocktail with a difference could
try making what Mr Martin has called the Sproutini.
The drink uses eight small sprouts, frozen to create
ice cubes and added to 15ml of extra dry vermouth
and 75ml of gin.
Etymology:
"Sproutini" = "sprout"
+ "Martini" (a cocktail made of
gin or vodka and vermouth) or Martin
(the last name of the Chef J. Martin) + the ending
"-i" (as in "Martini").
Stra
(chat) stray
Sudoku
- Su
Doku
- Su
- Doku
- Number
Place
- Number
- Place
- Wordoku
- Killer
Sudoku
- Killer
- Samunamupure
- Sudo-Q
- sudokumania
Also: sudoku, Su Doku
A number placement puzzle consisting of a grid of
nine 3-by-3 squares, in which the numbers 1 to 9
must be placed so that each row, column and square
only contains one instance of each number. Some
of the squares already contain a number.
Synonym: Number Place (Amer.)
Examples: 1) British Airways
has banned its staff from doing Sudoku puzzles,
arguing that the Japanese numbers game distracts
cabin crew during take-off and landing. ("The
Australian", 31st October 2005)
2) There is no adding up, subtraction,
multiplication or division in Sudoku. You do not
even need to know that two plus two equals four.
But, boy, can it make your brain ache, your pulse
race and knuckles whiten as you grip your pen in
exasperation or, finally, ecstasy! (The "Daily
Mail", 12 May 2005)
3) And filling the committees is a complex
task, like trying to complete 30 inter-related Sudoku
puzzles simultaneously. (The "Independent",
22 Jul. 2005)
History, related words:
The term Sudoku is based on the Japanese
words "su" ("number") and
"doku" ("single"), though
the puzzle"s origins aren"t strictly in Japan. The
first puzzle of its kind was entitled Number
Place, created in 1979 or in in the early
1980s by freelance puzzle constructor Howard
Garns, and subsequently published in
New York by the specialist puzzle publisher Dell
Magazines. It was adopted by Nikoli,
a Japanese publisher specialising in logic puzzles,
in 1984. Here it was introduced as "Suji
wa dokushin ni kagiru", which can
be translated as "the numbers must be single", a
description later abbreviated to Sudoku
and now a trademark held by Nikoli in
Japan. Sudoku"s journey to
Britain is allegedly attributable to Wayne Gould,
a retired judge from New Zealand who bought
a book of the puzzles during a trip to Japan and
was immediately hooked. After a communication between
Gould and Michael Harvey, features
editor of "The Times"
newspaper in the UK, the first Sudoku
puzzle appeared in "The Times"
on 11th November 2004 and soon after in the
"Daily Mail" and several other
newspapers, though the craze really took off around
May 2005. The "Mail" puzzles are
comparatively easy, with 32 of the 81 squares already
filled in. Others
have fewer and are correspondingly harder. Sudoku
puzzles have proved immensely popular across
a wide range of generations and nationalities, possibly
because they require no specific mathematical skills
and eliminate the language barriers associated with
conventional puzzles like crosswords. The craze
has spawned a number of variations on the same theme,
including an alphabetical puzzle aptly referred
to as Wordoku. At the end of August
2005, The Times newspaper in Britain launched
the Killer Sudoku, originally called
the Samunamupure (literally "sum number
place") by its Japanese inventors, which has the
added complexity of requiring digits within inner
boxes to add up to specified numbers. The Sudoku
craze has spread like wildfire through Britain,
and is now entering the domain of terrestrial television
as the BBC plans to run a series of lunchtime shows
in the two weeks before Christmas, entitled Sudo-Q.
The derived term "sudokumania"
("mania of sudoku") has been coined for
the game.
Svengali
A hypnotically forceful person who induces others
to perform evil; person who completely dominates
another (usually with evil motives); one who exerts
controlling influence over another person; someone
(usually maleficent) who tries to persuade or force
another person to do his bidding.
Example:
Bell is happy to cultivate the impression that he
was the Svengali who transformed Thatcher's harsh,
strident public persona into something softer and
more voter-friendly. (J.Paxman, "Friends
in high places")
Etymology:
Svengali was the musician in a novel
by George du Maurier "Trilby", who controls
Trilby's singing hypnotically.
sabot
[sa-BOH]
1. A wooden shoe worn in various European
countries.
2. A strap across the instep in a shoe,
especially of the sandal type.
3. A shoe having a sabot strap.
4. A thrust-transmitting carrier that
positions a missile in a gun barrel or
launching tube and that prevents the escape
of gas ahead of the missile.
5. A dealing box designed to hold several
decks of playing cards.
Example:
All her kind, at least in the countryside, wore...
sabots, well past the century's end. (Eugen
Weber, France, "Fin de Siecle")
History, related words:
The term "sabot" may
have first been introduced into English in a
1607 translation from French: "Wooden
shoes," readers were informed, are
"properly called sabots." The
gun-related sense appeared in the mid-1800s
with the invention of a wooden gizmo that kept
gun shells from shifting in the gun barrel.
Apparently, someone thought the device resembled
a wooden shoe and named it "sabot"
(with later generations of this device carrying
on the name). Another kind of French sabot
- a metal "shoe" used to secure rails
to railway ties - is said to be the origin of
the word "sabotage," from workers
destroying the sabots during a
French railway strike in the early 1900s. The
word "sabot" is probably
related to "savate," a Middle
French word for an old shoe.
saccade
[sak-KAHD]
A small rapid jerky movement of the eye especially
as it jumps from fixation on one point to another
(as in reading).
Example:
In reading, the eyes scan the text in a series
of saccades and form what can be thought of
as still photographs processed by the brain.
History:
"Saccade" is a French
word meaning "twitch" or "jerk."
It galloped into English in the early 18th century
as a term used in horseback riding for a quick
check using the reins. (Today, this meaning
is too specialized for entry in "Merriam-Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary", but it is stabled
in "Webster's Third New International
Dictionary, Unabridged".) In 1879,
French ophthalmologist Emile Javal observed
that a reader's eyes make a series of short
jumps, which he referred to in French as saccades.
It wasn't until 1938, however, when experimental
psychologist Robert Woodworth wrote about
the pioneering Javal and his saccades,
that the ocular use of the word was seen in
an English publication.
sacrosanct
[SAK-roh-sankt]
1. Sacred; inviolable.
2. Treated as if holy;
immune from criticism or violation.
Examples:
1) The family was viewed as sacrosanct:
divorce was highly unusual and children were
expected to be grateful for the sacrifices that
parents, who postponed their own gratifications
in forming a family, made on their behalf. (Alan
Wolfe, "One Nation, After All")
2) Espionage is about redefining
Good and Evil, the violable and the sacrosanct.
(Edward Shirley, "Know Thine Enemy")
3) For years the respected scientist's
theories were treated as sacrosanct by his colleagues,
and only recently have his ideas been seriously
challenged.
Etymology, related words:
In "sacrosanct", "sacro"
and "sanctus" were combined
long ago to form a phrase meaning "hallowed
by a sacred rite." "Sacro"
means "by a sacred rite" and comes
from "sacrum," a Latin noun
that lives on in English anatomy as the name
for our pelvic vertebrae - a shortening of "os
sacrum," which literally means
"holy bone." "Sanctus"
means "sacred" and gave us "saint"
and obvious words like "sanctimony,"
"sanctify," and "sanctuary."
saga
[SAH-guh]
1. A prose narrative recorded in Iceland
in the 12th and 13th centuries of historic or
legendary figures and events of the heroic age
of Norway and Iceland.
2. A modern heroic narrative resembling
the Icelandic saga.
3. A long detailed account.
Example:
The author's latest book is a saga about four
hikers trapped atop a snowy mountain for six
days.
History:
The original sagas were prose
narratives that were roughly analogous to modern
historical novels. They were penned in Iceland
in the 12th and 13th centuries and blended fact
and fiction to tell the tales of famous rulers,
legendary heroes, or even plain folks. And they
were aptly named; "saga"
traces back to an Old Norse root that means
"what is said or told." When English
speakers borrowed the term back in the early
1700s, they used it to describe those first
Icelandic stories. Later, "saga"
was broadened to cover anything that resembled
such a story, and eventually it was further
generalized to cover any long, complicated scenario.
sagacious
[suh-GAY-shus]
Of keen penetration and judgment; discerning
and judicious; knowing; shrewd; wise.
Examples:
1) Edward's uncle, a sagacious
scholar equally at home with Celtic myth and
Eastern wisdom, declines his nephew's request
to tell the story of Hamlet (it would come too
close to home). (John Gross, "New York
Times", December 3, 1984)
2) Others worked up sagacious-sounding
comments about the French author that would
serve until they could read some of his books
themselves, or until the current interest fades.
(Maureen Dowd, "Nobel Panel's Pick Keeps
Cognoscenti Guessing," New York Times,
October 18, 1985)
3) John Adams, another of the
doctor's Congressional colleagues, said of him:
"Franklin had a great genius, original,
sagacious, and inventive, capable of discoveries
in science no less than of improvements in the
fine arts and the mechanic arts. (Richard
M. Ketchum, "Saratoga")
Etymology:
"Sagacious" derives
from Latin "sagax" ("keen;
shrewd; clever").
saggar
A protective box enclosing ceramic ware while
it is being fired.
Example:
The processes of making pottery are demonstrated
here, and the building complex includes an engine
house and a saggar maker's shop, where fireclay
cases were made for holding batches of pots
during firing. (Bailey, Brian. A guide to
Britain's industrial past. - London: Whittet
Books Ltd, 1985)
History:
In large-scale pottery manufacture years ago,
the furnaces (called bottle kilns from their
shape) were usually heated by coal or coke furnaces.
Flames, ashes and corrosive gases would have
damaged the pottery if it wasn't protected by
being put into "saggars",
a word that seems to be a contraction of "safeguard".
These were hollow squat cylinders with flat
tops and bottoms so they could be stacked in
the kiln, often in piles 30 feet high or more.
Saggars were made from a type
of fireclay that was mixed with a proportion
of ground-up reused saggar called
"grog"; they only lasted for about
forty firings, so every large works had its
own saggar-makers. These men had
assistants whose job was to make the heavy flat
bottoms of the saggars, beating
the fireclay into shape inside an iron hoop
using a mallet called a mawl (pronounced [maw]
in Staffordshire). These assistants, lads in
their teens, were the "saggar-maker's
bottom knockers". These and related
jobs - such as the "batter-outs" who
beat out the strips of clay for the sides of
the saggars - vanished when kilns
began to be fired instead by clean gas or electricity
so that protective saggars weren't
needed.
Some modern small-scale potters still use saggars,
but as an enclosure to allow materials such
as seaweed or pine needles to be placed against
the piece to create interesting markings or
colourings. Isn't it interesting that the only
people who fire in saggars today use them for
exactly the opposite function to traditional
potters - to make marks on the ware?"
saguaro
- giant
cactus
- giant
- cactus
[suh-WAHR-uh]
A tall columnar usually sparsely-branched cactus
("Carnegiea gigantea") of dry
areas of the southwestern United States and
Mexico that bears white flowers and a scaly
reddish edible fruit and that may attain a height
of up to 50 feet (16 meters).
Example:
For a brief period in spring, ...the saguaro
has a silly aspect, as white flowers bloom atop
its columnar trunk, like a frilly little Easter
hat... (Christine Temin, "Boston Globe",
September 4, 1994)
History, synonym:
For people living in Arizona and southeastern
California, the word "saguaro"
won't be anything new. Perhaps you know this
emblem of all things Southwestern simply as
the "giant cactus,"
another of its common names. The word "saguaro"
originated in Opata, a language spoken
by peoples of the Sonoran Desert region of Mexico.
It came into English by way of the Spanish
spoken by the Mexican settlers of the American
West. The very saguaros we see
today may well have been around when the word
was first noted, some 150 years ago - this amazing
cactus can live for up to 200 years, particularly
- in the Arizonan desert, and it is in bloom
in May and June.
salad days
A time of youthful inexperience, innocence,
or indiscretion.
Example:
Those were his salad days, and he thought they
might last forever. (David Gergen, "'They
Love You. Watch Out' ", New York Times,
February 2, 1997)
Etymology:
"Salad days" was coined
by Shakespeare in "Antony and
Cleopatra":
My salad days,
When I was green in judgment, cold in blood.
salient
- prominent
- projecting
- sally
- Salientia
- salmon
- somersault
[SAIL-yunt, SAY-lee-unt]
1. Shooting out or up; jutting forward
beyond a line.
Synonym: projecting.
2. Forcing itself on the attention; conspicuous;
noticeable; standing out conspicuously; of notable
significance.
Synonym: prominent.
3. Leaping; springing; jumping.
4. An outwardly projecting part of a
fortification, trench system, or line of defense.
5. A projecting angle or part.
Examples:
1) The senator's speech was filled
with so much twisted rhetoric that it was hard
to identify its salient points.
2) The strength of the hypothesis
is that it simultaneously explains all these
salient features, none of which had satisfactory
independent explanations. (Paul F. Hoffman
and Daniel P. Schrag, "Snowball Earth,"
Scientific American, January 2000)
3) He was killed during an attack
on German positions dug into Ploegsteert Wood
on the Ypres salient. (Russell Jenkins and
Stephen Farrell, "Search begins for family
of Flanders fusilier," Times (London),
January 10, 2000)
Etymology:
"Salient" first popped
up in English in the mid-17th century, and in
its earliest English uses meant "moving
by leaps or springs" (such as a salient
cheetah) or "spouting forth" (such
as a salient fountain). Those senses aren't
too much of a jump from the word's parent, the
Latin verb "salire", which
means "to leap". "Salire"
has leaped into many English words; it's also
an ancestor of "somersault"
(a forward or backward roll performed by the
body; make a complete forward or backward roll)
and "sally" ("to
leap forth or rush out suddenly"), as well
as "Salientia", the
name for an order of amphibians that includes
frogs, toads, and other notable jumpers, and
perhaps "salmon" - the
"leaping" fish. Today, "salient"
is usually used to describe things that are
physically prominent (such as a salient nose)
or that stand out figuratively (such as the
salient features of a painting).
salmagundi
[sal-muh-GUHN-dee]
1. A salad plate usually consisting of
chopped meat, anchovies, eggs, and onions, served
with oil and vinegar.
2. Any mixture or assortment; a medley;
a potpourri; a miscellany.
Examples:
1) A glance at the schedule is
enough to make one feel that one would rather
go out and shoot songbirds than stay in and
watch the dismal salmagundi of game shows, repeats
and soap operas. (Jane Shilling, "My
brother and other animals", Daily Telegraph,
August 22, 1998)
2) What the BBC has the nerve
to call Vanity Fair is a baffling salmagundi
of Nineties accents, 1800s clothes, Wardour
Street plotting, and a sort of language never
spoken by any human being at any point in history.
("Stop betraying the classics",
Independent, November 4, 1998)
Etymology:
"Salmagundi" comes from
French "salmigondis".
salt of the earth
1. Highly respected people; people of
high morals, with permanent and indestructible
humanity.
2. Common people; honest, hard-working
people.
Example:
The Swensons are plain, decent people - salt
of the earth, eh.
History:
In the ancient world, salt was
considered indestructible, thus it was used
to seal (and to dry the text of) agreements.
At the same time, to the ancient Hebrews and
some other peoples (e.g., the
Eastern Slavs) salt symbolized
hospitality, durability and purity. To eat the
salt of the King was to owe him
utmost fidelity. Eating bread and salt
together sealed an unbreakable friendship.
Jesus said if it lost its taste is was good
for nothing. It was also currency; e.g.,
soldiers were, at one time, paid in salt,
and probably, hence the word "salary"
appeared. In India, if you eat someone's salt,
you are bound to be loyal to him or her - a
betrayal of the debt of salt is
the worst kind.
salubrious
[suh-LOO-bree-us]
Favorable to health; promoting health; healthful.
Examples:
1) A physician warned him his
health was precarious, so Montague returned
to the United States, shelved his legal ambitions
and searched for a salubrious climate where
he might try farming. ("Teeing Off Into
the Past At Oakhurst," New York Times,
May 2, 1999)
2) For years, her mother has maintained
that the sea air has a salubrious effect on
both her spirits and her vocal cords. (Anita
Shreve, "Fortune's Rocks")
3) Uptown, however, the tanners'
less salubrious quarter is notorious for its
stench. ("Byzantium," Toronto Star,
February 7, 1999)
Etymology:
"Salubrious" is from
Latin "salubris" ("healthful"),
from "salus" ("health").
salutary
[SAL-yuh-ter-ee]
1. Producing or contributing to a beneficial
effect; beneficial; advantageous.
2. Wholesome; healthful; promoting health.
Examples:
1) Alexis de Tocqueville famously
observed during his sojourn in this country
that America was teeming with such associations
- charities, choral groups, church study groups,
book clubs - and that they had a remarkably
salutary effect on society, turning selfish
individuals into public-spirited citizens.
(Fareed Zakaria, "Bigger Than the Family,
Smaller Than the State," New York Times,
August 13, 1995)
2) Surviving a near-death experience
has the salutary effect of concentrating the
mind. (Kenneth T. Walsh and Roger Simon,
"Bush turns the tide," U.S. News,
February 28, 2000)
3) And they washed it all down
with sharp red wines, moderate amounts of which
are known to be salutary. (Rod Usher, "The
Fat of the Land," Time Europe, January
8, 2000)
Etymology:
"Salutary" derives from
Latin "salutaris", from "salus,
salut-" ("health").
sanctum
(pl. sanctums or sancta)
1. A sacred place.
2. A place of retreat where one is free
from intrusion.
Examples:
1) What's more, the babble of
radios, televisions and raised voices from the
other households in the condominium rarely penetrated
this sanctum. (Tim Parks, "Mimi's Ghost")
2) Seymour has spent most of her
research time in that sanctum of the professional
biographer, the London Library. (John Mullan,
"The agony and the ecstasy", The Guardian,
December 23, 2000)
Etymology:
"Sanctum" comes from
the Latin, meaning "holy, sacred, or
inviolable".
sang-froid
also sangfroid [sang-FRWAH]
Freedom from agitation or excitement
of mind; coolness in trying circumstances.
Synonym: calmness.
Examples:
1) The Treasury Secretary's sang-froid
in moments of crisis. ("Keeping the
Boom From Busting," New York Times, July
19, 1998)
2) Both men were mightily impressed
by the calmness of the Americans on board, particularly
among the women. "I had, during my sojourn
in America," Beaumont said later, "a
thousand occasions to see the sang-froid of
the American." (Michael Kammen, "Wrecked
on the Fourth of July," New York Times,
July 6, 1997)
3) Gaviria knew Alberto as an
impulsive but cordial man capable of maintaining
his sangfroid under the most stressful circumstances.
(Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "News of a
Kidnapping")
Etymology:
"Sang-froid" is from
the French; it literally means "cold blood":
"sang" ("blood")
+ "froid" ("cold").
sangfroid
[SAHN-FRWAH] (the vowel in the first syllable
is pronounced nasally without any following
consonant)
self-possession or imperturbability especially
under strain
Example:
Harry thought he would be a jittery, stumbling
mess on the day of his presentation, but instead
surprised himself and impressed others with
his sangfroid.
Etymology:
If you're a lizard, "cold-blooded"
means your body temperature is strongly influenced
by your environment. If you're an English-speaking
human, it means you are callous and unfeeling.
If you're a French speaker, it means that you're
calm, cool, and collected in stressful situations.
By the mid-1700s, English speakers were already
using "cold-blooded" (that term has
been around since the late 1500s), but they
must have liked the more positive spin the French
put on having "cold blood" because
they borrowed the French "sang-froid"
(literally, "cold blood") for someone
who is imperturbable under strain. The French
term, by the way, developed from the Latin words
"sanguis" ("blood") and
"frigidus" ("cold").
sapid
[SAP-id]
1. Having taste or flavor, especially
having a strong pleasant flavor.
2. Agreeable to the mind; to one's liking.
Examples:
1) Chemistry can concentrate the
sapid and odorous elements of the peach and
the bitter almond into a transparent fluid.
(David William Cheever, "Tobacco,"
The Atlantic, August 1860)
2) I've raved about the elegant and
earthy lobster-and-truffle sausage, the sapid
sea bass with coarse salt poached in lobster
oil, and the indescribably complex and delectable
ballottine of lamb stuffed with ground veal,
sweet-breads and truffles. (James Villas,
"Why Taillevent thrives," Town &
Country, March 1, 1998)
Etymology:
"Sapid" comes from Latin
"sapidus" ("savory"),
from "sapere" ("to taste")
sartorial
[sar-TOR-ee-ul]
Of or relating to a tailor or
tailored clothes; (broadly) of or
relating to clothes.
Example:
"Far be it from me to criticize your sartorial
choices," said Helen, laughing, "but
do you really think that shirt goes with those
pants?"
History:
It's easy to uncover the root of "sartorial."
Just strip off the suffix "-ial",
and you discover the Latin noun "sartor,"
meaning "tailor" (literally, "one
who patches or mends"). Sartorial
splendor has been the stuff of voguish magazines
for years, and even "sartor"
itself has occasionally proven fashionable,
as it did in 1843, when Oliver Wendell Holmes
wrote of "coats whose memory turns the
sartor pale," or in the 1870 title "The
Sartor, or British journal of cutting, clothing,
and fashion". "Sartorial"
has been in style with English speakers since
at least 1823.
sashay
[sash-AY]
1. To make the sliding dance step called
chasse.
2. To walk, glide, go; to stroll.
3. To strut or move about in an
ostentatious or conspicuous manner.
4. To proceed or move in a diagonal
or sideways manner.
Examples:
1) Cameras flashed and fans screamed
as the latest pop princess sashayed down the
red carpet.
2) They sashayed down to the beach.
Etymology:
The French verb "chasse" ("to
make a sliding dance step") danced into
English unaltered in the early 19th century,
but as the word gained popularity in America
people often had difficulty pronouncing and
transcribing its French rhythms. By 1836, "sashay"
had begun to appear in print in American sources.
Authors such as Mark Twain, Zora
Neale Hurston, and John Updike have
all since put their names on the word's dance
card and have enjoyed the liveliness and attitude
"sashay" adds to descriptions
of movement. They and many, many others have
helped "sashay" slide
away from its French dance origins to strut
its stuff in descriptions of various walks and
moves.
satiety
- surfeit
- fullness
- satiate
- sate
1. the quality or state of being fed
or gratified to or beyond capacity
Synonyms: surfeit, fullness
Example:
Our host presented one sumptuous dish after
another, and we ate to satiety.
2. the revulsion or disgust caused by
overindulgence or excess
Etymology:
You may have guessed that "satiety"
is related to "satisfy", "satiate"
(meaning "to satisfy fully or to excess"),
or "sate" (which means
"to glut" or "to satisfy to the
full"). If so, you guessed right. "Satiety",
along with the others, ultimately comes from
the Latin word "satis," which means
"enough". English speakers apparently
couldn't get enough of "satis"-derived
words in the 15th and 16th centuries, which
is when all of these words entered the language.
"Satiety" itself was
borrowed into English in 1533 from the Middle
French word "satiete" of the same
meaning.
saturnine
[SAT-er-nyne, SAT-uhr-nyn]
1. Born under or influenced astrologically
by the planet Saturn.
2. Cold and steady in mood; slow to act
or change.
3. Of a gloomy or surly disposition.
4. Having a sardonic or bitter
aspect.
Examples:
1) His saturnine spirit appealed
to younger bohemians who were anxious to make
idols of an earlier generation's tormented souls,
but even so, it cannot have been easy for Rothko
always to be the pessimist among the optimists.
(Jed Perl, review of "Mark Rothko: A
Biography, by James E.B. Breslin", New
Republic, January 24, 1994)
2) A saturnine prison guard sits
and broods - and every now and then, gets up
and shoots an unseen prisoner. (John Walsh,
review of "The Silence Between Two Thoughts",
Independent, June 11, 2004)
3) He only knew his mother from
photos, which showed her to be a saturnine woman
with a permanent frown.
Etymology:
Eeyore is saturnine. The
gloomy, cynical character of A. A. Milne's
gray donkey typifies the personality type
the ancient Romans ascribed to individuals born
when the planet Saturn was rising in
the heavens. Both the name of the planet and
today's featured adjective derive from the name
of the Roman god of agriculture, who
was often depicted as a bent old man with a
stern, sluggish, and sullen nature. In Medieval
times Saturn was believed to be the most
remote planet from the Sun and thus coldest
and slowest in its revolution. The Latin
name for Saturn was "Saturnus,"
which is assumed to have yielded the word "Saturninus"
(meaning "of Saturn") in Medieval
Latin; that form was adapted to create English
"saturnine" in the 15th
century.
saviour sibling
Using an embryos for some desirable genetic
characteristic that would help cure a sickly
existing child.
Example:
An example of a "saviour sibling"
would be to create a baby whose umbilical cord
blood could save the life of a sibling with
a rare blood disorder.
Etymology:
The term is a specific application of the more
general "designer b
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