Chapter Silver of Guthrum to Sing Old Rose of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Simon Pure The real man. In Mrs. Centlivre's Bold Stroke for a Wife, a Colonel Feignwell passes himself off for Simon Pure, and wins the heart of Miss Lovely. No sooner does he get the assent of her guardian, than the veritable Quaker shows himself, and proves, beyond a doubt, he is the real Simon Pure.

Simony Buying and selling church livings; any unlawful traffic in holy things. So called from Simon Magus, who wanted to purchase the “gift of the Holy Ghost,” that he might have the power of working miracles. (Acts viii. 9-23.)
   Simony. The friar in the tale of Reynard the Fox; so called from Simon Magus.

Simple (The). Charles III. of France. (879, 893-929.)
   Simples cut. (See Battersea.)

Simple Simon A simpleton. The character is introduced in the well-known nursery tale, the author of which is unknown.

Simplicity is sine plica, without a fold; as duplicity is duplex plica, a double fold. Conduct “without a fold” is straightforward, but thought without a fold is mere childishness. It is “tortuity of thought” that constitutes philosophic wisdom, and “simplicity of thought” that prepares the mind for faith.

“The flat simplicity of that reply was admirable.”- Vanbrugh and Cibber: The Provoked Husband, i.

Simplon Road Commenced in 1800 by Napoleon, and finished in 1806. It leads over a shoulder of what is called the Pass of the Simplon (Switzerland).

Sin, according to Milton, is twin-keeper with Death of the gates of Hell. She sprang full-grown from the head of Satan.

“... Woman to the waist, and fair,
But ending foul in many a scaly fold
Voluminous and vast, a serpent armed
With mortal sting.” Paradise Lost. ii. 650-653.
   Original sin. (See Adam.)

Sin-eaters Persons hired at funerals in ancient times, to take upon themselves the sins of the deceased, that the soul might be delivered from purgatory.

“Notice was given to an old sire before the door of the house, when some of the family came out and furnished him with a cricket [low stool], on which he sat down facing the door; then they gave him a groat which he put in his pocket, a crust of bread which he ate, and a bowl of ale which he drank off at a draught. After this he got up from the cricket and pronounced the ease and rest of the soul departed, for which he would pawn his own soul.” - Bagford's letter on Leland's Collectanea, i. 76.

Sincere (2 syl.) properly means without wax (sine cera). The allusion is to the Roman practice of concealing flaws in pottery with wax, or to honey from which all the wax has been extracted. (See Trench: On the Study of Words, lect. vii. p. 322.)

Sindhu' The ancient name of the river Indus. (Sanskrit, syand, to flow.)

Sindon A thin manufacture of the Middle Ages used for dresses and hangings; also a little round piece of linen or lint for dressing the wound left by trepanning. (Du Cange gives its etymology Cyssus tenuis; but the Greek sindorn means “fine Indian cloth.” India is Sind, and China Sina.)

Sine Die (Latin). No time being fixed; indefinitely in regard to time. When a proposal is deferred sine die, it is deferred without fixing a day for its reconsideration, which is virtually “for ever.”

Sine qua Non An indispensable condition. Latin, Sine qua non potest esse or fieri (that without which [the thing] cannot be, or be done).

Sinecure [si'-ne-kure ]. An enjoyment of the money attached to a benefice without having the trouble of the “cure”; also applied to any office to which a salary is attached without any duties to perform. (Latin, sine cura, without cure, or care.)