sipylite 
crystals, isomorphoiis with fergiuonlte, also massive, of a 
brownish-black color and resinous luster. It is found in 
Amherst county, Virginia. 
Si quis (si kwis), . [L.* qitis, if any one, the first 
words of a formal notification or at] vertisement : 
si, if ; qu is, anyone: seeir/fo.] A public notice; 
specifically, in the Ch. of Eng., a notice public- 
ly given in the parish church of a candidate for 
the diaconate or priesthood, announcing his in- 
tention to offer himself for ordination, and ask- 
ing any one present to declare any impediment 
against his admission to orders. In the case of a 
bishop a public notice is affixed to the door of a church 
(Bow Church for the province of Canterbury). 
Saw'st thou ever siqiiis patch'd on Paul's church door, 
To seek some vacant vicarage before? 
Bp. Hall, Satires, II. v. 
My end is to paste up a si quit. 
Marston, \\ hat you Will, iii. (Nares.) 
si-quis (si'kwis), v. t. [< si quis, n.] To adver- 
tise or notify publicly. [Rare.] 
I must excuse my departure to Theomachus, otherwise 
he may send here and cry after me, and Si quis me in the 
next gazette. Gentleman Instructed, p. 312. (Dames.) 
Sir (ser), H. [< ME. sir, syr, set; pi. sires, seres, 
serys, a shortened form, due to its unaccented 
use as a title, of sire, syre = Icel. aim, in mod. 
pron. sera, sera, < OF. sire, master, sir, lord, in 
F. used in address to emperors and kings (= 
Pr. sire, eyre = It. sere, sire, ser), a weaker form 
of OF. seiire, sendra (in ace. and hence nom. 
seigneur, sieur = Sp. sefior = Pr. Pg. senhor = 
It. signor, a lord, gentleman, in address sir), < 
L. senior (ace. seniorem), an elder, ML. a chief, 
lord: see senior. Cf . sire, signor, seignior, seKor, 
etc.] If. A master; lord; sovereign. The use 
of sir in this and the next sense is derived in part, if not 
wholly, from its use in address (def. 8) ; the regular form 
for these senses is sire. (See sire.) The Middle English 
forms cannot be discriminated in the plural. 
Sole sir o' the world, 
I cannot project mine own cause so well 
To make it clear. Shak., A. and C., v. 2. 120. 
2. A person of rank or importance ; a person- 
age ; a gentleman. 
A nobler sir ne'er lived 
Twixt sky and ground. 
Shak., Cymbeline, v. 5. 145. 
Here stalks me by a proud and spangled sir, 
That looks three handfuls higher than his foretop. 
B. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, iii. 2. 
3. Master; mister: a respectful and formal 
title of address, used formerly to men of supe- 
rior rank, position, or age, and now to men of 
equal rank, or without regard to rank, as a mere 
term of address, without etymological signifi- 
cance. In emphatic assertions, threats, or reproaches 
the word takes meaning from the tone in which it is ut- 
tered. It was used sometimes formerly, and is still dia- 
lectally, in addressing women. 
"What, serys!" he seith, "this goth not all a right." 
Generydes (E. E. T. S.), 1. 1536. 
And [Lot] seide, I prey sow, syres, bowith down into the 
hows of joure child, and dwellith there. 
Wyclif, Gen. xix. 2. 
My noble girls! Ah, women, women, look, 
Our lamp is spent, it 's out ! Good sirs, take heart. 
Shak., A. and C., iv. 15. 84. 
Ped. Whence come you, sir? 
San. p'rom fleaing myself, sir. 
Soto. From playing with fencers, sir ; and they have 
beat him out of his clothes, sir. 
Middleton and Rowley, Spanish Gypsy, ii. 2. 
She had nothing ethereal about her. No, sir; she was 
of the earth earthy. 
Thackeray, Fitz-Boodle Papers, Dorothea. 
Specifically (a) [cap.] A title of honor prefixed to the 
Christian names of knights and baronets, and formerly 
applied also to those of higher rank, as the king ; it was 
also prefixed occasionally to the title of rank itself: as 
Sir King ; Sir Knight ; Sir Herald. 
Syr Edwarde, somtyme Kynge of England, our fader. 
Arnold's Chron., p. 31. 
But, Sir, is this the way to recover your Father's Favour? 
Why, Sir Sampson will be irreconcileable. 
Congreve, Love for Love, i. 1. 
Sir king, there be but two old men that know. 
Tennyson, Coming of Arthur. 
(6t) Formerly, a title of a bachelor of arts; hence, a title 
given to a clergyman ; also, a clergyman. 
Sir. A title formerly applied to priests and curates in 
general, for this reason : dominus. the academical title of 
a bachelor of arts, was usually rendered by tir in English 
at the universities. So that a bachelor, who in the books 
stood Dominus Brown, was in conversation called Sir 
Brown. . . . Therefore, as most clerical persons had taken 
that first degree, it became usual to style them Sir. 
Nares. 
And xxvij Day of August Decessyd Syr Thomas Toppe, 
a prest of the west countre. 
Torkington, Diarie of Eng. Travel], p. 56. 
I prithee, put on this gown and this beard; make him 
believe thou art Sir Topas the curate. 
Shak., T. N., iv. 2. 2. 
Voted, Sept. 5th, 1763, "that Sir Sewall. B. A., be the 
Instructor in the Hebrew and other learned languages for 
three years." Peirce, Hist. Harv. Univ., p. 234. 
5655 
Sir Johnt, a priest ; a clergyman. 
Instead of a faithful and painful tencher, thy hire a Sir 
John, which hath better skill in playing at tables . . . 
than in God's word. Latimer. 
Sir John Barleycorn. See barleycorn. Sir Roger de 
Coverley. Same as Roger de Coverley. 
sir (ser), r. ; pret. and pp. sirred, ppr. sirri 
[< sir, H.] 1. trans. To address as "sir." 
My brother and sister Mr. Solmes'd him and Sirr'd him 
up at every word. 
Richardson, Clarissa Harlowe, I. 47. (Dames.) 
II. inlraiis. To use the word sir. 
Oh it looks ill 
When delicate tongues disclaim all terms of kin, 
Sir-ing and Madam-ing. Southey, To Margaret Hill. 
siraballi(sir-a-bari), n. [S. Amer.] A fragrant 
timber from British Guiana, the product of an 
unidentified tree. 
siraskier, n. Same as seraskier. 
sircar (ser-kar'), n. [Also sirkar, drear, cercar; 
< Hind, sarkdr, < Pers. sarkar, head of affairs, 
superintendent, chief, < ser, sar.the head, + kur 
= Skt. kara, action, work, business. Cf. sir- 
dar.} In India: (a) The supreme authority; 
the government. (6) The master; the head of 
a domestic establishment, (c) A servant who 
keeps account of the household expenses and 
makes purchases for the family; a house-stew- 
ard ; in merchants' offices, a native accountant 
or clerk, (d) A division of a province : used 
chiefly in the phrase the Northern Sircars, a 
former division of the Madras Presidency. 
Sirdar (ser-dar'),. [Also sardar; < Hind, sar- 
dar, < Pers. sardar, a leader, chief, commander, 
< ser, sar, a head, chief, + -ddr, holding, keep- 
ing, possessing. Cf. sircar."] In India: (a) A 
chief or military officer ; a person in command 
or authority. 
As there are many janizaries about the country on their 
little estates, they are governed by a sardar in every cas- 
tellate, and are subject only to their own body. 
Pococke, Description of the East, II. i. 267. 
(6) Same as sirdar-bearer. 
A close palkee, with a passenger ; the bearers . . . trot- 
ting to a jerking ditty which the sirdar, or leader, is im- 
provising. J. W. Palmer, The Hew and the Old, p. 265. 
sirdar-bearer (ser-dar' barker), H. In India, 
originally, the chief or leader of the bearers of 
a palanquin, who took the orders of the master; 
hence, a head servant, sometimes a kind of head 
waiter, sometimes a valet or body-servant. 
Sire (sir), n. [< ME. sire, syre = Sp. Pg. sire = 
G. Dan. Sw. sire, < OF. sire, master, lord, sir, 
sire, lord (used in addressing a sovereign), < L. 
senior, an elder, ML. a chief, lord, orig. adj., 
elder, compar. of sencx, old : see senior. Cf. sir.} 
If. A master; a lord; hence, a personage of 
importance ; an esquire ; a gentleman. 
Ther rede I wel he wol be lord and syre. 
Chaucer, Parliament of Fowls, 1. 12. 
Oure sire in his see aboue the seuene sterris 
Sawe the many mysscheuys that these men dede. 
Richard the Redeless, iii. 352. 
2. Master; lord; my lord: a respectful and for- 
mal title of address, used formerly to men of 
superior rank, position, or age, especially to a 
prince. (See sir. ) Sire is or has been in pres- 
ent or recent use only in addressing a king or 
other sovereign prince. 
Thence to the court he past ; there told the King, . . . 
And added "Sire, my liege, so much I learnt." 
Tennyson, Lancelot and Elaine. 
3f. The master of a house ; goodman ; husband. 
Upon a nyght Jankin, that was our sire, 
Redde on his book, as he sat by the fire. 
Chaucer, Prol. to Wife of Bath's Tale, 1. 713. 
The only exception known to me is art. vi. in the Statuts 
des Poulaillers de Paris : " The wife of a poulterer may 
carry on the said mystery after the death of her husband, 
quite as freely as if her sire was alive ; and if she marries a 
man not of the mystery, and wishes to carry it on, she must 
buy the (right of carrying on the) mystery." 
English. Gilds (E.. E. T. S.), p. cxxxii., note. 
4. An old person ; an elder. 
He was an aged syre, all hory gray. 
Spenser, F. Q.,I. x. 5. 
That bearded, staff-supported Sire . . . 
That Old Man, studious to expound 
The spectacle, is mounting high 
To days of dim antiquity. 
Wordsworth, White Doe of Rylstone, i. 
5. A father; an ancestor; a progenitor: used 
also in composition: as, grandszre; great-grand- 
sire. *^ 
Lewde wrecche. wel bysemithe thi siris sonne towedde 
me ! Gesta Roinanorum (ed. Herrtage), p. 124. 
He, but a duke, would have his son a king, 
And raise his issue, like a loving sire. 
Shale., 3 Hen. VI., ii. 2. 22. 
Sons, sires, and grand/fires, all will wear the bays. 
Pope, Imit. of Horace, II. i. 171. 
siren 
6. The male parent of a beast: used especially 
of stallions, but also of bulls, dogs, and other 
domestic animals : generally with dam as the 
female parent. 
The sires were well selected, and the growing animals 
were not subjected to the fearful setbacks attendant on 
passing a winter on the cold plains. 
The Century, XXXVII. 334. 
7. A breed ; a growth : as, a good sire of pigs, 
or of cabbages. Halliicell. [Prov. Eng.] 
sire (sir), v. t.; pret. and pp. sired, ppr. siring. 
[< sire, n.] To beget ; procreate : used now 
chiefly of beasts, and especially of stallions. 
Cowards father cowards, and base things sire base. 
Shak., Cymbeline, iv. 2. 26. 
siredon (si-re'don), n. [NL. (Wagler), < LL. si- 
redon, in pi. siredoncs, < Gr. aeipvAuv, a late col- 
lateral form of aeipr/v, a siren: see siren. 1 A 
larval salamander; a urodele batrachian with 
gills, which may subsequently be lost: original- 
ly applied to the Mexican axolotl, the larval or 
gilled form of Amblystoma mexicana, under the 
impression that it was a distinct genus. See 
cut under axolotl. 
sireless (sir'les), . [< sire + -less.] 1. With- 
out a sire ; fatherless. 
That Mother-Maid, 
Who Sire-less bore her Sire, yet ever- Ma id. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Triumph of Faith, ill. 33. 
2. Ungenerative ; unprocreative ; unproductive. 
The Plant is leaf-less, branch-less, void of fruit; 
The Beast is lust-less, sex-less, sire-less, mute. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, ii., Eden. 
siren (si'ren), n. and . [Early mod. E. also 
syren, sirene; < ME. sirene, syrene, also serein, 
sereyn, < OF. sereine, F. sirene = Pr. serena = 
Sp. sirena = Pg. serea, sereia = It. sirena, serena 
= D. sirecn = G. Dan. sirene = Sw. siren, < L. 
siren, ML. also sirena and serena (by confusion 
with L. serena, fern, of seremis, serene), < Gr. 
aeipfiv, a siren; formerly supposed to mean 
'entangler,' < oeipa, a cord; but prob. akin to 
o-S/xyf, a pipe (see syringe), Skt. y scar, sound, 
praise (> stvara, a sound, voice, etc.), and E. 
swear, swarm.'] I. . 1. In Gr. myth., oneof two, 
three, or an in- 
determinate 
number of sea- 
nymphs who 
by their sing- 
ing fascinated 
those who sailed 
by their island, 
and then de- 
stroyed them. 
In works of art they 
are represented as 
having the head, 
arms, and general- 
ly the bust of a 
young woman, the 
wings and lower 
part of the body, 
or sometimes only 
the feet, of a bird. 
In Attic usage they 
are familiar as god- 
desses of the grave, personifying the expression of regret 
and lamentation for the dead. See Harpy monument (un- 
der harpy), and compare cut under embolon. 
Next where the sirens dwell you plough the seas ! 
Their song is death, and makes destruction please. 
W. Broome, in Pope's Odyssey, xii. 51. 
2f. A mermaid. 
Though we mermaydens clepe hem here 
In English, as is oure usaunce, 
Men clepen hem sereyns in France. 
Rom. of the Rose, 1. 684. 
Over-against the creeke Pssstanum, there is Leucasia, 
called so of a meremaid or sirene there buried. 
Holland, tr. of Pliny, iii. 7. 
3. A charming, alluring, or enticing woman ; a 
woman dangerous from her arts of fascination. 
This Semiramis, this nymph, 
This siren, that will charm Rome's Saturnine. 
Shak., Tit. And., ii. 1. 23. 
4. One who sings sweetly. 
In deep of night . . . then listen I 
To the celestial sirens' harmony. 
Milton, Arcades, 1. 63. 
5t. A fabulous creature having the form of a 
winged serpent. 
Ther be also in some places of arabye serpentis named 
nirenes, that ronne faster than an horse, & haue wynges to 
fle. Eabees Look (E. E. T. S. ), p. 238. 
6. In licrpct.: (<i) Any member of the Sirenidee. 
(6) [c<y>.] [NL.] A Linnean genus of amphibi- 
ans,now restricted as the type of the family Sire- 
nidse. Also Sirene. 7. Oneof the -S<reja,asthe 
manatee, dugong, halicore, or sea-cow; any sire- 
nian. 8. An acoustical instrument consisting 
essentially of a wooden or metallic disk, pierced 
Sirens. From a Greek funeral marble 
in Chios. (From Mittheilungen of the Ger- 
man Institute in Athens.) 
