Chapter Society to Soldats of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

show that his strength was exhausted with sorrow (1 Kings xxi. 27). Isaiah says, “I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul” (xxxviii. 15). The Psalmist says, “My clothing was sackcloth ... I walked as [for] a friend or brother.” The French Je vais doucement means precisely the same thing: “I go softly,” because I am indisposed, out of sorts, or in low spirits.

Softy A soft, simple person.

“She were but a softy after all.”- Mrs. Gaskell: Sylvia's Lovers. chap. xv.

Soho! The cry made by huntsmen when they uncouple the dogs in hunting the hare. Also to pointers and setters when they make a point. Tally-ho! (q.v.) is the cry when a fox breaks cover. So! or see! is to call attention, and ho! is virtually “hie after him.”

“Now is the fox drevin to hole. Hoo to hym! Hoo! Hoo!
For and he acpe out he will you alle undo.”
Excerpta Historica, p. 279.

“If ye hounte at the hare, ye shall say, atte uncoupling, hors de couple, avaunt! And after, three times, Sohow! Sohow!”- A fifteenth-century translation of Reliquæ Antiquæ.

“When a stag breaks covert the cry is `tayho!' ... when a hare ... `soho!' ”- Herbert: Field Sports, vol. iii. appendix B. p. 313.

    Of course “Ho!” is often used merely to call attention. Thus we say to one in advance, “Ho! stop!” and “Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters” (Isaiah lv. 1). This use of the word is a contracted form of haloo! In the hunting-field “So-ho” is doubtless a cry to encourage the dogs to follow up the quarry.

Soi-disant (French). Self-styled, would-be.

Soil To take soil. A hunting term, signifying that the deer has taken to the water. Soil, in French, is the mire in which a wild boar wallows. (Danish, sol, mire; Swedish, söla, to wallow.)

“Fida went downe the dale to seeke the hinde,
And founde her taking soyle within a flood”
Browne: Britannia's Pastorals, i. 84

Soil the Milk before Using It Yorkshire for “Sile the milk, etc.”- i.e. strain it, or skim it. A sile is a sieve or strainer.

“Take a handeful of sauge, and stampe it, and temper it with hate ale, and sythene syle it thorowe a hate clothe.”- MS Lincoln. A i. 17 f 281

“Drink the licoure siled thorgh a clothe.”- MS. in Mr. Pettigrew's possession (fifteenth century).

Sojourn (2 syl.) is the Italian soggiorno- i.e. sub-giorno; Latin, sub-diurnus (for a day, temporally).

Sol (Latin). The sun.

“And when Dan Sol to slope his wheels began.”
Thomson: Castle of Indolence, cauto i.

   Sol. The term given by the ancient alchemists to gold. Silver was luna.
   Sol in the Edda was the daughter of Mundilfori, and sister of Mani. She was so beautiful that at death she was placed in heaven to drive the sun-chariot. Two horses were yoked to it, named Arvakur and Alsvith (watchful and rapid). (Scandinavian mythology.) (See Mani.)

Sol-fa (See Do, Re , etc.)

Solan Goose The gannet. (French, Oie de Soland (ou) d'Écosse; Icelandic, sula.)

Solano Ask no favour during the Solano (Spanish). Ask no favour during a time of trouble, panic, or adversity. The Solano of Spain is a south-east wind, extremely hot, and loaded with fine dust. It produces giddiness and irritation. Called the Sirocco in Italy.