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his own name to it, which he himself took from the village 
of Sorbon, or Serbon, in the department of the Ardennes, 
near Sens, six miles north of Rethel, where he was born. 
The foundation was laid in 1250, afterwards the king gave 
him all the houses he had in the same place, in exchange for 
some others in another. 
The college has been since magnificently rebuilt by the 
Cardinal de Richelieu. The design of its institution was for 
the use of poor students in divinity. 
There were lodgings in it for thirty-six doctors and bache¬ 
lors of the house; who were said to be of the society of the 
Sorbonne. Those admitted into it without being doctors 
were said to be of the hospitality of the Sorbonne. Six 
regent doctors held lectures every day, for an hour and half 
each, three in the morning, and three in the afternoon. 
Sorbonne has been also used in the general for the whole 
faculty of theology at Paris, because the assemblies of the 
whole body were held in the house of the Sorbonne: and 
because the bachelors of the other houses of the faculty, as 
the house of Navarre, &c., came thither to hold their forbon- 
nique, or act, for being admitted doctors of divinity. 
SORBUS [of Pliny, &c., a sorbendo, quia caro matura 
sorbetur: the pulp being supped or sucked in], in Botany, 
a genus of the class icosandria, order trigynia, natural order 
of pomaceae; rosacese (Juss.J —Generic Character. Calyx: 
perianth one-leafed, concave-spreading, five-cleft, perma¬ 
nent, Corolla: petals five, roundish, concave, inserted into 
the calyx. Stamina: filaments twenty, awl-shaped, inserted 
into the calyx. Anthers roundish. Pistil: germ inferior. 
Styles three, filiform, erect. Stigmas headed. Pericarp: 
Berry soft, globular, umbilicate. Seeds three, somewhat 
oblong, distinct, cartilaginous.— Essential Character. Ca¬ 
lyx five-cleft. Petals five. Berry inferior, three-seeded. 
1. Sorbus aucuparia, mountain service, mountain ash, 
quicken tree, or roan tree.—Leaves pinnate, smooth on both 
sides. The mountain ash is an elegant tree, of slow growth; 
the wood tough and close-grained; not very hard ; the bark 
smooth and gray; the young branches purplish, brown. 
Leaves unequally pinnate; leaflets (five, six, seven or eight 
pairs,) serrate, except at the base.—Native of the colder parts 
of Europe, Mount Libanus, Siberia, &c. Woods and 
hedges on mountainous and boggy situations in the north of 
England, in Wales, Scotland and Ireland: flowering in 
May. 
2. Sorbus hybrida, bastard service or mountain ash.-— 
Leaves semipinnate, tomentose beneath. This is a middle- 
sized tree. Leaves lobed in front, pinnate at the base, serrate, 
without any stipules, smooth above, white-tomentose be¬ 
neath. Corymbs terminating, tomentose, many-flowered. 
Flowers white. Styles three, or sometimes two only. 
Fruit as in the preceding, but a little larger.—Native of 
Europe. 
3. Sorbus domestica, true service or sorb.—Leaves pin¬ 
nate, villose underneath. The true service is a tree of mid¬ 
dling size, not unike the mountain ash, of very slow growth, 
not flowering till it arrives at a great age; the wood is very 
hard.—The true service is a native of the warmer parts of 
of Europe, where it becomes a large and lofty tree. 
Propagation and Culture. —All these sorts may be pro¬ 
pagated by sowing their seeds in pots soon after the fruit is 
ripe, sheltering them under a common frame in winter, and 
plunging the pots into a moderate hot-bed in the spring, 
which will soon bring up the plants. 
SO'RCERER, s. [sorrier, Fr., sortiarius, low Latin; 
from sortcs, Lat. lots; implying a diviner by lots.] A 
conjurer; an enchanter; magician. 
He saw a sable sorcerer arise. 
All sudden gorgons hiss, and dragons glare. 
And ten-hord’d fiends. Pope. 
SO'RCERESS, s. A female magician; an enchantress. 
The snaky sorceress that sat 
Just by hell-gate, and kept the fatal key. Milton. 
SOTtCEROUS, adj. Not used. 
S 0 R 
Th’art ent’ring Circe’s house, 
Where by her med’cines, black and sorcerous, 
Thy souldiers all are shut in well arm’d sties, 
And turn’d to swine. Chapman. 
The wine being consecrated, it is carried home, that 
therewith they may sprinkle their houses, to preserve them 
from witchcraft and sorcerous incantations. L. Addison. 
SO'RCERY, s. Magic; enchantment; conjuration; 
witchcraft; charms. 
This witch Sycorax, 
For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible, 
Was banish’d Shakspeare. 
SORCERY, the crime of witchcraft, or divination, by 
the assistance of evil spirits. See Magic and Magician. 
SORCY, a town in the north-east of France, department 
of the Meuse, with 1800 inhabitants. It has manufactures 
of leather; 4 miles south-east of Commercy. 
SORD, s. Turf; grassy ground. 
This is the prettiest low-born lass that ever 
Ran on the green sord. Shakspeare. 
SORDE, a town in the south-west of France, department 
of the Landes, near the river called Gave d’Oleron, with 
1300 inhabitants; 1] miles south of Dax. 
SO'RDES, s'. [Latin.] Foulness; dregs.—The sea washes 
off the soil and sordes wherein mineral masses were involved 
and concealed, and thereby renders them more conspicuous. 
Woodward. 
SO'RDET, or So'rdine, s. [sourdine, Fr. sordino, 
Italian.] A small pipe put into the mouth of a trumpet to 
make it sound lower or shriller. Bailey. 
SORDI, a small island of Greece, in the Mediterranean, 
about 6 miles west of Candia. 
SO'RDID, adj. [sordide, Fr. in all its senses; sordidus, 
Lat.] Foul; gross ; filthy ; dirty. 
There Charcn stands 
A sordid god, down from his hoary chin 
A length of beard descends, uncomb’d, unclean. Dryden. 
Intellectually dirty; mean; vile; base. 
Thou can’st not those exceptions make. 
Which vulgar sordid mortals take. Cowley . 
Covetous; niggardly. 
He may be old. 
And yet not sordid, who refuses gold. Denham. 
SO'RDIDLY, adv. Meanly; poorly; covetously. 
SO'RDIDNESS, s. Meanness; baseness.-—I omit the 
madnesses of Caligula’s delights, and the execrable sordid - 
ness of those of Tiberius. Cowley .—Nastiness; not neat¬ 
ness.—Providence deters people from sluttishness and sordid¬ 
ness, and provokes them to cleanliness. Pay. 
SORDUN, a town of France, department of the Seine and 
Marne. Population 800. 
SORE, s. Q-ap, Saxon; saur, Danish.] A place tender 
and painful; a place excoriated; an ulcer. It is not used of 
a wound, but of a breach of continuity, either long con¬ 
tinued or from internal cause: to be a sore, there must be an 
excoriation; a tumour or bruise is not called a sore before 
some disruption happen. 
Let us hence provide 
A salve for any sore that may betide. Shakspeare. 
By these all festring sores her councils heal. 
Which time or has disclos’d, or shall reveal. Dryden. 
SORE, adj. [fap. Sax. gravis, molestus; sar, Goth, tener, 
Serenius.] Tender to the touch. It has sometimes of before 
the causal noun.—It was a right answer of the phy¬ 
sician to his patient, that had sore eyes, If you have 
more pleasure in the taste of wine than in the use 
of your sight, wine is good; but if the pleasure of 
seeing be greater to you than that of drinking, wine is 
naught. Locke.- —Tender in the mind; easily vexed.— 
Malice and hatred are very fretting and vexatious, and apt 
to make our minds sore and uneasy; but he that can 
moderate thesG affections will ease in his mind. Tiltotson. 
—Violent 
