286 



Glossary of Provincialisms. 



[APP. 



is properly applied to fish, especially 

 the grey mullet which visits the coast ii 

 the autumn, and so metaphorically t( 

 beggars who go in companies. Milton 

 uses the word 



" sculls that oft 



Bank the mid sea." 



Paradise Lost, Book vii 



Shakspeare, too, speaks of " scaled 

 sculls" (Troilus and Cressida, Act v 

 sc. 5). The expression " school ol 

 whales," which we so often find in Arctic 

 and whaling voyages is nothing but 

 this word slightly altered. According 

 to Miss Gurney's Glossary of Norfolk 

 words transactions of the Philological 

 Society, 1855), the word "school" is 

 applied to herrings on the south-eastern 

 coast. Juliana Berners, in the Boke of 

 St. Albans, curiously enough says that 

 we should speak of " a sculke of foxes, 

 and a sculle of frerys." Quoted in 

 Miiller's Science of Language, p. 61. 



SETTY. Eggs are said to be " setty " 

 when they are sat upon. 



SHAMMOCK, To. To slouch. "A 

 shammocking man " means an idle, 

 good-for-nothing person. Applied also 

 to animals. " A shammocking dog," 

 means almost a thievish, stealing dog, 

 thus shoAving how the word is akin to 

 shamble, scamble, which last verb also 

 signifies to obtain any thing by false 

 means. 



SHEAR, AFTER-, The. The second 

 crop of grass. Called in the Midland 

 Counties "the eddish," and also the 

 "latter-math," or " after-math." 



SHEETS'-AXE, A. An oak apple. 

 See chap. xvi. p. 183. 



SHELF, A. A bank of sand or pebbles, 

 or shallow in a river, or even the ford 

 itself. Milton uses the word in Comus : 



" On the tawny sands and shelves." 

 Hence we got the adjective " shelvy," 

 also in common use, and employed by 

 Falstaffe "The shore was shelvy and 

 shallow " ( The Merry Wives of Windsor, 

 Act Hi., sc. 5). It is this latter word, | 



which Mr. Halliwcll and Mr. Wright 

 must mean instead of " shelly," and 

 which they define as "an ait in a river." 

 The word is probably from the same 

 Scandinavian root as shoal. 



SHIM. Lean. " He's a shim fellow," 

 that is, thin. It is used, I see from 

 Mr. Cooper's glossary, foi v a shadow, in 

 the western division of Sussex ; and I 

 think I have somewhere met with it in 

 the sense of a ghost. 



SHOAK, SHOCK, SHUCK, Off, To. To 

 break off short. Thus gravel is said to 

 shock off at any particular stratum, or 

 " list," or " scale," as it would be called. 

 See the following word. 



SHOCK, A. Not applied merely to 

 corn, but to anything else. "A shock 

 of sand " means a line or band of sand, 

 called also a " list," or " lissen," or 

 " bond," or " scale," and sometimes 

 " drive : " which last, however, has a 

 more particular reference to the direc- 

 tion of the stratum. 



SIZE. Thickness, consistency. " The 

 size of the gruel " means its consistency. 

 SKIMMER-CAKE, A. A small pud- 

 ding made up from the remnants of 

 another, and cooked upon a " skimmer," 

 the dish with which the milk is skimmed. 

 Nearly equivalent to the " girdle-cake," 

 north of England. 



SKROW. Shattered or battered. 

 SLAB, A. A thick slice, lump, used 

 like squab, which see. Thus we hear 

 of " a slab of bacon," meaning a large 

 piece. Opposed to " snoule," which 

 signifies a small bit." I have just had 

 a snoule," means I have only had a 

 morsel. 



SLINK, A. " A slink of a thing," in 

 >vhich phrase the Avord is only found, is 

 alike applied to objects animate or in- 

 animate, and means either a poor, weak, 

 tarved creature, or anything Avhich is 

 small and not of good quality. 



SLUT, A. A noise, sound. " A slut 

 >f thunder," means a clap or peal of 

 hunder. It is in this sense that the 

 word is most generally used. 



