Chapter Saltarello to Samson of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Samaria according to 1 Kings xvi. 24, means the hill of Shemer. Omri “bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of [his] city ... after the name of Shemer ... Samaria.” (B.C. 925.)

Samaritan A good Samaritan. A philanthropist, one who attends upon the poor to aid them and give them relief. (Luke x. 30-37.)

Sambo A pet name given to anyone of the negro race. The term is properly applied to the male offspring of a negro and mulatto, the female offspring being called Zamba. (Spanish, zambo, bowlegged; Latin, scambus.)

Samedi (French). Saturday. A contraction of Saturni-dies. In French, m and n are interchangeable, whence Saturne is changed to Saturme, and contracted into Same. M. Masson, in his French etymologies, says it is Sabbati dies, but this cannot be correct. MARDI is Martis-dies, VENDREDI is Veneris dies, JEUDI is Jovis-dies, etc. (The day of Saturn, Mars, Venus, Jove, etc.)

Samian The Samian poet. Simonides the satirist, born at Samos.

Samian Letter (The). The letter Y, used by Pythagoras as an emblem of the straight narrow path of virtue, which is one, but, if once deviated from, the farther the lines are extended the wider becomes the breach.

“When reason doubtful, like the Samian letter,
Points him two ways, the narrower the better.”
Dunciad, iv.

Samian Sage (The). Pythagoras born at Samos; sometimes called “the Samian.” (Sixth century B.C.)

“Tis enough,
In this late age, adventurous to have touched
Light on the numbers of the Samian sage.”
Thomson.

Samiasa A seraph, who fell in love with Aholibamah, a granddaughter of Cain, and when the flood came, carried her under his wing to some other planet. (Byron: Heaven and Earth.)

Samiel the Black Huntsman of the Wolf's Glen. A satanic spirit, who gave to a marksman who entered into compact with him seven balls, six of which were to hit infallibly whatever was aimed at, but the seventh was to deceive. The person who made this compact was termed Der Freischutz. (Weber: Der Freischutz, libretto by Kind.)

Samiel Wind or Simoom'. A hot suffocating wind that blows occasionally in Africa and Arabia. (Arabic, samma, suffocatingly hot.)

“Burning and headlong as the Samiel wind.”
Thomas Moore: Lalla Rookh, pt. i.

Sammael The chief of evil spirits, who is for ever gnashing his teeth over the damned. Next to him is Ashmedai (Asmodeus). (Cabalists.)

Samoor The south wind of Persia, which so softens the strings of lutes, that they can never be tuned while it lasts. (Stephen: Persia.)

“Like the wind of the south o'er a summer lute blowing,
Hushed all its music, and withered its frame.”
Thomas Moore: The Fire Worshippers.

Samosatian Philosopher Lucian of Samosata. (Properly Samos'a-tan.)

Sampford Ghost (The). A kind of exaggerated “Cock Lane ghost” (q.v.), which “haunted” Sampford Peverell for about three years in the first decade of the 19th century. The house selected was occupied by a man named Chave, and besides the usual knockings, the inmates were beaten; in one instance a powerful “unattached arm” flung a folio Greek Testament from a bed into the middle of a room. The