Chapter Sun in one's Eyes to Swaddler of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

through me; ' and then he set it to his mouth, stole it off every drop, save a little remainder, which he was by custom to set upon his thumb-nail and lick off.”

“ `Tis here! the supernaculum! twenty years
Of age, if 'tis a day.” Byron: Werner, i. 1.

   Supernaculum. Entirely. To drink supernaculum is to leave no heel-taps; to drink so as to leave just enough not to roll off one's thumb-nail if poured upon it, but only to remain there as a wine-bead.

“This is after the fashion of Switzerland. Clear off neat, supernaculum.”- Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel, bk. i. 5.

“Their jests were supernaculum,
I snatched the rubies from each thumb,
And in this crystal have them here.
Perhaps you'll like it more than beer.”
King: Orpheus and Eurydice.

Superstition That which survives when its companions are dead. (Latin, supersto.) Those who escaped in battle were called superstites. Superstition is religious credulity, or that religion which remains when real religion is dead.
   Paul said to the Athenians that he perceived they were “too superstitious.”- Acts x v. 22.

Supped all his Porridge (He has). Eaten his last meal; he is dead.

Supper of Trimalchio (A). A supper for gourmands of the upper classes in the reign of Nero. It forms a section of Petronii Arbitri Satyricon.

Supplication This word has greatly changed its original meaning. The Romans used it for a thanksgiving after a signal victory (Livy, iii. 63). (“His rebus gestis, supplicatio a senatu decreta est” [Caesar: Bell. Gall., ii.].) The word means the act of folding the knees (sub-plico). We now use the word for begging or entreating something.

Sure as Demoivre Abraham Demoivre, author of The Doctrine of Chances, or Method of Calculating the Probabilities of Events at Play, was proverbially accurate in his calculations. It was Pope who said, “Sure as Demoivre, without rule or line.”
   Sure as a gun, as fate, as death and taxes, etc. (See Similes.)

“Surest Way to Peace is a constant Preparation for War.” Fox, afterwards Bishop of Hereford, to Henry VIII. (In Latin, “Si vis pacem, para bellum.”)

Surety One who takes the place of another, a substitute, a hostage.

Surfeit Water Cordial water to cure surfeits.

“Water that cures surfeits. A little cold distilled poppywater is the true surfeit water.”- Locke.

Surgeon is the Greek form of the Latin word manufacturer. The former is cheir-ergein (to work with the hand), and the latter manu-facere (to do or make with the hand).

Surloin of Beef (See Sirloin. )

Surlyboy Yellow hair. (Irish, surley buie.)

Surname (2 syl.). The over-name; either the name written over the Christian name, or given over and above it; an additional name. For a long time persons had no family name, but only one, and that a personal name. Surnames are not traced farther back than the latter part of the tenth century.
   Surnames of places.

   In ford, in ham, and ley, and ton.
   The most of English surnames run.

Surplice (2 syl.). Over the fur robe. (Latin, super-pellicium.) The clerical robe worn over the bachelor's ordinary dress, which was anciently made of sheepskin. The ancient Celts and Germans also wore a garment occasionally over their fur skins.
   Durandus says: “The garments of the Jewish priesthood were girt tight about them, to signify the bondage of the law; but the surplice of the Christian priest is loose, to signify the freedom of the gospel.”