Chapter Sappho of Toulouse to Saturn's Tree of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

from Sardis, in Asia Minor) is so acrid that it produces a convulsive movement of the nerves of the face, resembling a painful grin. Byron says of the Corsair, There was a laughing devil in his sneer.

“ `Tis envy's safest, surest rule
To hide her rage in ridicule;
The vulgar eye the best beguiles
When all her snakes are decked with smiles,
Sardonic smiles by rancour raised.”
Swift: Pheasant and Lark.

Sardonyx An orange-brown cornelian. Pliny says it is called sard from Sardis, in Asia Minor, where it is found, and onyx, the nail, because its colour resembles that of the skin under the nail (xxxvii. 6).

Sarnia. Guernsey. Adjective, sar-nian.

“Sometimes ... mistakes occur in our little bits of Sarnian intelligence.”- Mrs. Edwardes: A Girton Girl. chap. iii.

Sarpedon A favourite of the gods, who assisted Priam when Troy was besieged by the allied Greeks. When Achilles refused to fight, Sarpedon made great havoc in battle, but was slain by Patroclos. (Homer, Iliad.)

Sarsen Stones The “Druidical” sandstones of Wiltshire and Berkshire are so called. The early Christian Saxons used the word Saresyn as a synonym of pagan or heathen, and as these stones were popularly associated with Druid worship, they were called Saresyn or heathen stones. Robert Ricart says of Duke Rollo, “He was a Saresyn come out of Denmark into France.” Another derivation is the Phoenician sarsen (a rock), applied to any huge mass of stone that has been drawn from the quarry in its rude state.
    These boulders are no more connected with the Druids than Stonehenge is (q.v.).

Sartor Resartus (The Tailor Patched.) By Thomas Carlyle.
   Diogenes Teufelsdröckh is Carlyle himself, and Entepfuhl is his native village of Ecclefechan.
   The Rose Goddess, according to Froude, is Margaret Gordon, but Strachey is Blumine, i.e. Kitty Kirkpatrick, daughter of Colonel Achilles Kirkpatrick, and Rose Garden is Strachey's garden at Shooter's Hill. The duenna is Mrs. Strachey.
   The Zahdarms are Mr. and Mrs. Buller, and Toughgut is Charles Buller.
   Philistine is the Rev. Edward Irving.

Sash Window is a window that moves up and down in a groove. (French, chassis, a sash or groove.)

Sassanides (4 syl.). The first Persian dynasty of the historic period; so named because Ardeshir, the founder, was son of Sassan, a lineal descendant of Xerxes.

Sassenach (ch = k). A Keltic word for a Saxon, or for the English language.

Satan in Hebrew, means enemy.

“To whom the Arch-enemy
(And hence in heaven called Satan).”
Milton: Paradise Lost, bk. i. 81, 82.

Satan's Journey to Earth (Milton: Paradise Lost, iii. 418 to the end). He starts from Hell, and wanders a long time about the confines of the Universe, where he sees Chaos and Limbo. The Universe is a vast extended plain, fortified by part of the ethereal quintessence out of which the stars were created. There is a gap in the fortification, through which angels pass when they visit our earth. Being weary, Satan rests awhile at this gap, and contemplates the vast Universe. He then transforms himself into an angel of light and visits Uriel, whom he finds in the Sun. He asks Uriel the way to Paradise, and Uriel points out to him our earth. Then plunging through the starry vault, the waters above the firmament, and the firmament itself, he alights safely on Mount Niphates, in Armenia.

Satanic The Satanic School. So Southey called Lord Byron and his imitators, who set at defiance the generally received notions of religion. Of English writers, Byron, Shelley, Moore, and Bulwer are the most prominent; of French writers Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Paul de Kock, and George Sand.