Sayornis 
Black Phoebe or Pewit (Sayornis ttigricans}. 
bird of dry open regions, in sage-brush, etc. The genus 
is otherwise named Theromyias and Aulanax. See also 
cut under peipit. 
Sayre's operation. See operation. 
say-so (sa'ao), n. [< say\ v., + so, adv.'] \. 
A saying or assertion ; especially, an authori- 
tative declaration ; a command. 
If Richard Cromwell keep not hold of the scepter and 
Richard Cromwell is a simpleton then Kelderby stands 
in the wind of Charles Stuart's say-so. 
A. E. Barr, Friend Olivia, xvii. 
2. A personal assertion ; an expression of in- 
dividual opinion; hence, mere report; rumor. 
Pete Cayce's say-so war all I wanted. 
tl. S. Murfree, Prophet of Great Smoky Mountains, xii. 
All my say-sos . . . have been verified. 
Elect. liev. (Eng.), XXIV. 20. 
Sb. In chem., the symbol for antimony (in Latin 
stibium). 
sbirro (sbir'ro), )!.; pi. sbirri (-re). [It. (> Sp. 
csbirro = OF. sbirre) sbirro, also without the 
unorig. prefix, birro, a bailiff, sergeant, cf. 
berroviere, a bailiff, a ruffian, prob. so called as 
being orig. in red uniform, < LL. birrus, a cloak 
of a reddish color, OL. burrus, red: see birrus, 
barrel.] An Italian police-officer. 
'sblood (sblud), interj. [An abbr. of God's 
blood, through 'ods-blood, uds-blood. Cf . 'sdeath, 
< God's death; zounds, < God's wounds, etc.] An 
imprecation. 
'Sblood. I am as melancholy as a gib cat or a lugged bear. 
Shot., 1 Hen. IV., i. 2. 82. 
S-brake (es'brak), n. A railway-brake having 
a brake-shoe attached to each end of an S- 
shaped rock-lever centrally axled between a 
pair of wheels on one side. When rocked on its 
axle it causes one of the shoes to bear against the front 
under side of the hind wheel, and the other shoe to press 
upon the back upper side of the front wheel of the pair. 
8. C. An abbreviation: (a) Of the Latin sena- 
tus consulto, by decree of the senate (of Rome). 
(6) In printing, of small capitals. 
SC. An abbreviation: (a) Of scilicet. (6) Of 
Latin sculpsit, he (or she) engraved or carved 
(it), (c) [cap.] Of Scotch (used in the etymol- 
ogies in this work). 
Sc. In chem., the symbol for scandium. 
scab (skab), n. and a. [< ME. scab, scabbe, also 
assibilated stiab (the form scab being rather due 
to Scand.), < AS. sceeb, sceb, sceabb, scab, itch, 
= MD. schabbe = OHG. scaba, scapd, MHG. G. 
schabe, scab, itch, = Sw. skabb = Dan. skab, scab, 
itch; either directly < L. scabies, roughness, 
scurf, scab, itch, mange (cf. scaber, rough, 
scurfy, scabby), < scabere, scratch ; or from the 
Teut. verb cognate with the L., namely, AS. 
scafan = G. schaben, etc., shave: see shave. Cf. 
shab, an assibilated form of scab.] I. n. 1. An 
incrusted substance, dry and rough, formed over 
a sore in healing. 2. The mange, or some 
mangy disease caused by the presence of a par- 
asite, as an itch-insect ; scabies. 3. A mean, 
paltry, or shabby fellow : a term of contempt. 
A company of scabs! the proudest of you all draw your 
weapon if he can. Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay. 
Though we be kennel-rakers, scabs, and scoundrels, 
We, the discreet and bold And yet, now I remember it, 
We tilers may deserve to be senators. 
Fletcher (and another 7), Prophetess, i. 3. 
One of the usurers, a head man of the city, took it in 
dudgeon to be ranked, cheek by joul, with a scab of a cur- 
rier. Sir R. L' Estrange. 
4. Specifically, in recent use, a workman who 
is not or refuses to become a member of a la- 
bor-union, who refuses to join in a strike, or 
who takes the place of a striker: an opprobri- 
ous term used by the workmen or others who 
dislike his action. [Vulgar.] 
5365 
Even the word scab, which we have heard so frequently 
of late, and which had to be defined for the Congressional 
Committee on Labor by one of its witnesses, was used in 
a law-suit tried in Philadelphia eighty years ago. 
New Princeton Rev., II. 54. 
5. In bot., a fungous disease affecting various 
fruits, especially apples and pears, in which a 
black mold appears, often distorting or destroy- 
ing the fruit. It is usually followed by a brown scab- 
like appearance, whence the name. The fungus produ- 
cing the disease in apples and pears is Fiurifladium den- 
driticum. The orange-leaf scab is produced by a species 
of Cladosporium. See Fusicladiuin. 
6. In founding, any projection on a casting 
caused by a defect in the sand-mold. 
II. a. Having to do with '"scabs," or made 
by them: used opprobriously : as, scab mills; 
scab labor; scab shoes. [Vulgar.] 
scab (skab), v. i. ; pret. and pp. scabbed, ppr. 
scabbing, [(.scab, n.] To form a scab or scab- 
by incrustation ; become covered with a scab 
or scabs ; specifically, to heal over ; cicatrize ; 
repair solution of continuity of a surface by the 
formation of a new skin or cicatrix. 
Even granulating sores heal by the gradual process of 
cicatrisation from the edges heal by scabbing in a way 
that we have never seen so satisfactory under any other 
dressing. Lancet, No. 3454, p. 946. 
In the "glass snake" and other low orders of life, repair 
is usually by primary adhesion, by scabbing, or more rare- 
ly immediate union. .Sri. Amer., N. S., LVII. 277. 
SCabbadot (ska-ba'do), n. [Appar. < scab, with 
Sp. It. term, -ado.] Venereal disease. [Bare.] 
Within these five and twenty years nothing was more 
in vogue in Brabant than hot baths, but now they are 
every where grown out of use ; but the new scabbado has 
taught us to lay them down. 
Bailey, tr. of Colloquies of Erasmus, p. 198. 
scabbard 1 (skab'ard), n. [Early mod. E. also 
scabberd, scabarde; < ME. scauberd, scaubert, 
earlier scauberk, scawberk, skawberke, scaberk, 
schauberk, scaber ge, scabarge, prob. < OF. "es- 
cauberc, *escaubert, escauber (in pi. escaubers, 
escauberz), a scabbard, also a poniard; prob. 
formed (orig. in OLG. or OHG. ?) from elements 
corresponding to OF. escale, F. ecale, a scale, 
husk, case (< OHG. scala = AS. scalu = E. 
scaled), + -here (as in hauberc, a hauberk), < 
OHG. bergan = AS. beorgan, protect : see bury 3 , 
and cf . ha uberk. The formation of the word was 
not perceived in E., and the second element 
came to be conformed to the suffix -ard. The 
first element has been by some referred to E. 
scathe, harm, to Icel. scafi, a chisel, to Icel. 
skalpr, OSw. skalp, a sheath, and even to AS. 
scxth, a sheath.] A sheath; especially, a sheath 
for a sword or other similar weapon. 
Into his scaberge the swerde put Gaffray. 
Rom. of Partenay (E. E. T. S.), 1. 3060. 
I had a pass with him, rapier, scabbard, and all. 
Shalt., T. N., iii. 4. 303. 
He is one 
That wears his forehead in a velvet scabbard. 
Beau, and Fl., Captain, iii. 6. 
scabbard 1 (skab'ard), r. i. [< scabbard*, n.] 1. 
To sheathe, as a sword. 2. To provide with a 
scabbard or sheath ; make a sheath for. 
scabbard 2 t (skab'ard), n. [< scab + -ard.] A 
mangy, scabby person. Halliwell. 
scabbard 3 (skab'ard), n. [A reduction of scale- 
board.] In printing, a scale-board. 
scabbard-fish (skab'ard-fish), n. 1. A fish of 
the family Lepidopodidse, Lepidopus caudatus, 
Scabbard-fish ( Ltfidofits cnudatus). 
of the Mediterranean and Atlantic shores of 
Europe, as well as of New Zealand, of a bright 
silvery color, with a long dorsal and rudimen- 
tary anal fin : so called from suggesting by its 
form the sheath of a sword. Also called scale- 
fish and frost-fish. 2. Any fish of the family 
Gempi/lidee. Sir J. Richardson. 
scabbard-plane (skab'ard-plan), n. Inprinting, 
a scale-board plane (which see, under plane' 2 ). 
scabbed (skabd or skab'ed), a. [< ME. scabbed, 
scabbyde, scabyd; < scab 4- -ed%. Cf. shabbed, 
an assibilated form of scabbed.] 1. Abound- 
ing in or covered with scabs. 
The briar fruit makes those that eat them scabbed. 
Bacon. 
2. Specifically, mangy; affected with scabies. 
The shepherd ought not, for one scabbed sheep, to throw 
by his tar-box. B. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, iii. 1. 
3. Mean; paltry; vile; worthless. 
scabious 
scabbedness (skab'ed-nes), . A scabbed char- 
acter or stale: scabbiness. 
A scab, or ttcabbednesse, a .-cull. Scabies. Une rongne, 
galle, teigne. Baret, Alvearie, 1580. 
scabbily (skab'i-li), adv. In a scabby manner. 
scabbiness (skab'i-nes), . The quality of be- 
ing scabby. 
scabble (skab'l), r. t.; pret. and pp. scabbled, 
ppr. scabbliiig. [Also xcttpple; perhaps a freq. 
of "scare, unassibilated form of share, AS. 
scafan, shave: see shave. Cf. scab, from the 
same ult. source.] In stone-n'orking, to dress 
with a broad chisel or heavy pointed pick after 
pointing or broaching, and preparatory to finer 
dressing. 
scabbier (skab'ler), n. In granite-working, a 
workman who scabbles. 
scabbling (skab'ling), n. [Alsoscabling; < scab- 
ble + -ing 1 .] 1. A chip or fragment of stone. 
2. Same as boasting*, 2. 
Scabbling-hammer (skab'ling-ham"fer), . In 
stone-working, a hammer with two pointed ends 
for picking the stone, used after the spalling- 
hammer or cayel. Also scappling-hammer. 
scabby (skab'i), a. [= D. schabbig = MHG. 
schebic, G. schdbig; usscab + -yl. Cf. shabliy.] 
1. Covered with scabs ; full of scabs ; consist- 
ing of scabs. 
A scabby tetter on their pelts will stick, 
When the raw rain has pierced them to the quick. 
Dryden, tr. of Virgil's Georgics, iii. 672. 
2. Affected with scabies. 
If the grazier should bring me one wether fat and well 
fleeced, and expect the same price for a whole hundred, 
without giving me security to restore my money for those 
that were lean, shorn, or scabby, I would be none of his 
customer. Swift. 
3. Injured by the attachment of barnacles, 
limpets, and other shell-fish to the carapace, 
interfering with the growth of the shell at the 
spots affected : noting tortoise-shell so injured. 
4. In printing, noting printed matter that is 
blotched, spotty, or uneven in color. 
scabellum (ska-bel'um), 11.; pi. scabella (-a). 
[L., also scabiilum, a musical instrument (see 
def . ), also a footstool, dim. of scamnum, a bench, 
a footstool : see shamble^.] An ancient musi- 
cal instrument of the percussive class, consist- 
ing of two metal plates hinged together, and 
so fastened to the performer's foot that they 
could be struck together as a rhythmical ac- 
companiment. 
scaberulous (ska-ber'o-lus), a. [< NL. "scabe- 
rulus, irreg. dim. of L. scaber, rough: see sca- 
brous.] In bot., slightly scabrous or roughened. 
See scabrous. 
scab-fungus (skab'fung"gus), n. See scab, 5, 
and Fusicladium. 
scabies (ska'bi-ez), . [L., itch, mange, scab, 
< scabere, scratch : see scab.] The itch; a con- 
tagious disease of the skin, due to a parasitic 
mite, Sarcoptes scabiei, which forms burrows 
(cuniculi) in the epidermis and gives rise to 
more or less severe dermatitis. See cut under 
itch-mite. 
SCabipphobia (ska"bi-p-fo'bi-ii), . [NL., < L. 
scabies, scab, + Gr. (fiftta, < <t>6/3of, fear.] An 
excessive fear of scabies. 
Scabiosa (ska-bi-6'sa), n. [NL. (Tournefort, 
1700), < ML. scabiosa, scabious: see scabious, 
n.] A genus of gamopetalous plants, of the or- 
der Dipsacete, the teasel family. It is character- 
ized by terminal long-stalked and flattened heads of crowd- 
ed flowers, having an involucre of leafy bracts partly in 
two rows, inconspicuous chaff on the receptacle, a four- or 
five-cleft corolla, which is often oblique or two-lipped, four 
perfect stamens, a thread-shaped style, and the fruit an 
achene crowned with the calyx-tube. There are about 110 
species, chiefly natives of the Mediterranean region and 
the Orient, not found in America, but extending into 
South Africa. They are hairy annual or perennial herbs, 
with entire or dissected leaves, and blue, red, yellowish, 
or whitish flowers. They are known in general by the 
names scabious and pincushion. The roots of 5. guccisa and 
ed to adulterate valerian. 
[< F. sca 
, < L. scab 
scurfy, scabby, < scabies, scurf, scab: see sca- 
bies.] Consisting of scabs; scabby; scurfy; 
itchy. 
If the humours be more rare and subtle, they are 
avoided by fumosites and sweat ; if thicker, they turn to 
a scabious matter in the skin. 
Rev. T. Adams, Works, I. 501. 
scabious (ska'bi-us), n. [< ME. scabyowse, sca- 
byose, < OF. scabicuse, F. scabieuse = Pr. scabi- 
osa = Sp. Pg. escabiosa = It. scabbiosa. scabious, 
< ML. scabiosfi, sc. herba, 'scabious plant,' said 
to be so called because supposed to be effica- 
cious in the cure of scaly eruptions, fern, of L. 
icabiosits, rough, scaly: see scabious, a.] A 
. anentit are use 
scabious (ska'bi-us), a. [< F. scabieujr = Pg 
escabioso = It. scabbioso, < L. scabiosus, rough 
