Nov. 25. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



419 



•who, from any cause — as from bad living — is 

 shrunk up and deficient in growth. The word 

 shrump has nearly the same meaning, but is often 

 applied to one part only of the body : as that a 

 person is shrump-shouldered, when very narrow 

 in that part. I believe that the crustacean ani- 

 mals, shrimps, are so called from their habit of 

 drawing up their body, when caught, into a con- 

 tracted form ; and our fishermen always call them 

 shrumps. 



Scatter. It sometimes means simply to slide ; 

 but more frequently it expresses the action often 

 practised by boys, of throwing flat stones so as to 

 slide along the surface of water. 



Sense, stop. It seems remarkable that this 

 Italian word should be fixmiliarly used by our 

 children when at play, especially at marbles : when 

 they want to stop for a moment without detri- 

 ment to the play, they cry out sense, and the cry 

 is believed to be authoritative. 



Shaky. Infirm in inward structure, although 

 not very visibly weak. 



Shive. Applied to the motion of a horse that, 

 through shyness, passes quickly by an object, 

 keeping on the opposite or distant side of it. It 

 seems to have some refei'ence to the word shy, and 

 to contain the ancient pronunciation ; but it ex- 

 presses an action, rather than the cause which 

 leads to it. 



Shoul, a shovel. Sometimes it is pronounced 

 showel. 



Siff. This, which is common with us, is beyond 

 doubt the ancient way of pronouncing the word 

 sigh ; and several other words which contain the 

 letters gh have also changed their pronunciation. 

 The words dafter for daughter, and nafty for 

 naughty, are common. Sometimes soff is used 

 for siff or sigh. 



Skease, to run along very swiftly. 

 Skew, a short, smart, flying shower of rain, 

 hurried along by a sudden wind. 



Skit, a sarcasm, lampoon. It is derived from the 

 Saxon skeot, thrown out ; but the application in 

 common use is very wide. In common language, 

 scout is a person sent out to get intelligence, to be 

 a spy : to scout, is to drive away a person or thing. 

 And I have no doubt it is the root of the name of 

 the fish called a skate ; to explain which, it should 

 be known that a fisherman recognises two general 

 classes of fish : such as are saleable in the market, 

 and such as by custom are not so. The latter is 

 termed rabhle-fish ; which means the common, not 

 valued, or properly rejected and thrown aside, 

 and so are not carried to market. The skate is 

 one of the latter, and the largest of them ; and it 

 is to be observed that, in this sense, the rabble- 

 fish are not such as form no article of food for 

 any one — as the larger sharks, for instance — but 

 such as are perfectly wholesome, and are therefore 

 the food of the fisherman and his family, but yet 



are not sufficiently esteemed to be sold in the 

 market. The common thornback, grey gurnard, 

 comber, dog-fishes, and, when engaged in fishing 

 for pilchards, even the flake, are among the rabble- 

 fishes, and, as such, are not returned among the 

 profits of his employer by the fisherman. 



Skiver, what is now called a skewer ; used to 

 fasten meat in cooking. 



Slidder, to slide. 



Slock, to entice, allure. 



Slotter, to dirt, to throw about dirt. Plence, 

 perhaps, the word slattern for a dirty untidy 

 woman. 



Sneg, a small snail. 



Snuggle, to enter into a close embrace, as a 

 child into its mother's bosom. The word snug is 

 only the adjective of this verb. 



Soce, a common address to companions in con- 

 versation ; but at present it is used by old people 

 only, and to them seems without any definite 

 meaning. 



Sag, to sleep lightly, to doze. 



Soup. A verb with much the same meaning 

 as sip. 



Sowle, to pull about, to hawl lustily. 



Soyl, the seal-phoca. 



Sparabil, or sparaheal, a nail to put into the sole 

 of a shoe, without a head, and therefore different 

 from a hobnail. The meaning seems to be, a 

 spearbill, as being sharp, and finely edged off in 

 shape. 



Spile, which miners pronounce spael; to in- 

 flict a fine or a penalty for late attendance at 

 work. 



Sproyl, the power to move or struggle. It is 

 most commonly used negatively ; and a person 

 or animal is said " to have no sproyl, when, al- 

 though not dead, there is little or no power to 

 move." 



Stark, bare, exposed. The expression stark mad 

 is common everywhere, to express madness with- 

 out any doubt or disguise ; but, with us, the word 

 is employed without any addition : as that a 

 situation is stark, to signify its exposure to every 

 wind, and to cold. 



Stemming. A turn in succession to be supplied 

 with an article for which many people are wait- 

 ing. It is most commonly, if not solely, applied 

 to the turn in which people are supplied with 

 water at the common shute, when they are waiting 

 for it, and it runs sparely. 



Stitch, a sharp, sudden, pain in the side, often 

 arising from running. Shakspeare uses it in this 

 sense. Twelfth Night, Act III. Sc_. 2. 



Stramm, to strike or thrust with violence. A 

 stramming person is one who is strong, rough, and 

 violent. 



Strapping, great and robust. 



Stubb, and To stubh. A stulh Is a small, shortj 

 and blunt bit of wood. To stubh is to dig such a 



