Chapter Sword Excalibar to Sylvester of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Sycophant from the Greek suko-phantes, “fig-blabbers.” The men of Athens passed a law forbidding the exportation of figs; the law was little more than a dead letter, but there were always found mean fellows who, for their own private ends, impeached those who violated it; hence sycophant came to signify first a government toady, and then a toady generally.

“I here use `sycophant' in its original sense, as a wretch who flatters the prevailing party by informing against his neighbours, under pretence that they are exporters of prohibited figs.”- Coleridge: Biography, vol. iii. chap. x. p. 286.

Sycorax A witch, whose son was Caliban. (Shakespeare: The Tempest.)

Syenite A granite so called from Syene, in Egypt, its great quarry.

Syllogism The five hexameter verses which contain the symbolic names of all the different syllogistic figures are as follow:-

“Barbara, Celarent, Darii, Ferioque, prioris.
Cesare, Camestres, Festino, Baroko, secundoe.

Tertia, Darapti, Disamis, Datisi, Felapton,
Bokardo, Ferison, habet. Quarta insuper addit
Bramantip, Camenes, Dimaris, Fesapo, Fresison.

   N.B. The vowel
   A universal affirmative.
   E universal negative.
   I particular affirmative.
   O particular negative.
   Taking the first line as the standard, the initial letters of all the words below it show to which standard the syllogism is to be reduced; thus, Baroko is to be reduced to “Barbara,” Cesare to “Celarent,” and so on.

Sylphs, according to Middle Age belief, are the elemental spirits of air; so named by the Rosicrucians and Cabalists, from the Greek silphe (a butterfly or moth). (See Gnomes.)
   Sylphs. Any mortal who has preserved inviolate chastity may enjoy intimate familiarity with these gentle spirits. All coquettes at death become sylphs, “and sport and flutter in the fields of air.”

“Whoever, fair and chaste,
Rejects mankind, is by some sylph embraced.”
Pope: Rape of the Lock, i.

Sylvam Lignum Ferre (In). To carry coals to Newcastle. The French say, “Porter de l'eau à la rivière. ” To do a work of supererogation; to paint the lily, or add another perfume to the violet, or perform any other superfluous or ridiculous excess.

Sylvester (St.). The pope who converted Constantine the Great and his mother by “the miracle of restoring to life a dead ox.” The ox was killed by a magician for a trial of skill, and he who restored it to life was to be accounted the servant of the true God. This tale is manifestly an imitation of the Bible story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. (l Kings xviii.)