Glossary:St-Sy

Stawkyng horse : [1519/12/4-10] stalking horse; a horse used to find someone, for the purpose of delivering a message, or beckoning that person to come.

stab : to wound someone mischievouly or mortally; to pierce with a pointed weapon.

stablestand : evidence of poaching deer; a legal presumption providing the ground for charging a trespasser with stealing deer from the king. The term stablestand refers to one of four conditions that provide evidence poaching, or the intention to poach, namely (1) standing in the forest with a bent crossbow, (2) aiming to shoot at a deer, (3) standing with a long bow in hand, and (4) standing near a tree where greyhounds have been leashed for the purpose of chasing deer.

Stadtholder : [Du] the chief magistrate of the former United Provinces, now the Netherlands.

stallage : rent paid for a stall; the dung or compost that collects in a laystall.

Stamen : one of several slender and long parts of a flower, consisting of the filament and its apical anther. Cf. flower.

stamp : estampe : [Fr] a mark affixed to something to evidence that customs have been paid to the government; a tax stamp; a postal stamp

standard : a heraldic banner designed to show an abbreviated form of a man’s badge and armorial ensigns. When an armigerous man resides at home, he flies his standard, but when he leaves home the family raises instead his pinsel. Cf. pinsel.

standard : Royal Standard, the heraldic banner of the living sovereign of the United Kingdom. The Royal Standard accompanies the Queen wherever she goes, and it flies over Buckingham Palace only when the Queen is in residence. The standard serves as a symbol for the unbroken line of royal succession, and passes directly to the heir upon the death of the monarch. As it perpetually represents only the living monarch, there is no occasion to lower the Royal Standard to half-mast. The standard is alternatively used as part of a larger pall that covers the casket of a deceased monarch or royal personage. Cf. pall. Opp. Union Jack.

staple: an established emporium, a regular mart for the wholesale of commodities basic to manufacturing.

staple wares : raw goods and materials needed for the production of other items, such as wool, woolfel, cloth, lead, or tin, which are sold at wholesale at a staple.

Star of David : [1215] mogen David, the familiar six-pointed star made of two triangles, which now serves as the emblem of Israel, and which has always served as an emblem for a Jewish synagogue. Cf. Fourth Lateran Council, pink triangle.

Star of David : [1941] The Nazi Germans required Jews to apply the Star of David to prominent parts of their clothing, to show their nonconformity to the Christian faith, from 1941. The Nazi requirement was a resurrection of a stipulation made by the Fourth Lateran Council at Rome in 1215.

stateswoman : a contemptuous term for a woman who meddles in public affairs.[147]

stathe : stath : [1519 Sx] wharf; a word commonly used in Norfolk for a wharf. The Common Stathe at King’s Lynn was the public quay.

status : the position of an individual as a legal person, characterized by liberty, citizenship, and membership in a family.

status : kinship status, the status conferred by one’s birth. Cf. social order.

status unchastity : a sexual relationship wherein one of the parties has a status that requires chastity and absolutely prohibits sexual intercourse, e.g. monk, nun, priest.[148] Cf. incest, mismating.

Statute of Wills : [1540] the act that removed most of the restrictions on bequests of land held in socage. The act allowed sokemen to dispose of their socage land freely.[149]

Steady State theory : [1948] the stable view of the universe, proposed by Fred Hoyle in rebuttal to the Einsteinian ‘Big Bang’ theory. Opp. Big Bang.

steerage deck : [1877] the service deck of a ship that usually ran the entire length of the vessel, directly beneath the saloon deck. The steerage deck ranged in height from 5 to 10 feet, and was divided into compartments having 4-6 bunks each, or 2-3 bunks against opposite walls. The steerage deck was used mainly to transport steerage passengers, formerly called indentured servants, or the contract laborers who paid for their voyage with promises of future work. Steerage passengers ate their meals communally in a central room. Their dining tables were typically raised to the ceiling for stowage and lowered for meals, but few steerage passengers ever enjoyed proper meals. Although the steerage classes paid cash in advance for weekly rations of food, they were conceded the use of one or two galleys on the upper deck for food preparation. Few steerage passengers brought their own cooking utensils and supplemental food, and many could not adequately compete for cooking time in the galleys, so many went hungry for most of the voyage. By the 1870s, the steerage deck of a typical steamer could carry some 1,500 passengers, and one ship reportedly carried 1,700 steerage passengers. The single passengers were segregated by sex, with the men occupying at the fore of the ship, and the women occupying at the aft. Cf. contract ticket, saloon deck.

steerage fare : [1877] breakfast on the steerage deck, scheduled at 8 o’clock a.m., and usually consisting of coffee, hot bread, oatmeal porridge with molasses, and salt fish.[150]

steerage fare : [1877] dinner on the steerage deck, scheduled at 12 o’clock noon, and usually consisting of biled meats, soup, potatoes, and bread.[151]

steerage fare : [1877] supper on the steerage deck, scheduled at 6 o’clock p.m., and consisting of tea, bread, butter, and molasses.[152]

steerage passengers : [1877] the Victorian equivalent of indentured servants, emigrants who bargained their future labor for passage to America. They were contract laborers who traded their meager earnings for inexpensive contract tickets, at 4-6 guineas for transport from Liverpool to New York, and then were obliged to work off their contractual obligations upon arrival. Cf. indentured servants.

Stein, Gertrude : [1874-1946] an American writer who lived in Paris from 1903, and organized her house as a salon for celebrated artists and writers. Her lover was Alice B. Toklas. Through her friendship with Picasso, she developed a literary style correlative to Cubism.

Steinheim man : the fossil remains of a European Homo sapiens, dated in the Middle Quaternary period. Cf. Hominidae.

stellionate: stellionatus : deceptive trade, the crime of selling something one does not own.

stem family : an extended family that links the nuclear family of one married child with his or her natal family. A stem family is 3 or more generations, whereas the nuclear family consists of only 2 generations.[153]

stemma : [Gk] stem, a genealogical table, family tree, pedigree, lineage; race, generation; progeny; the branch of a family.

stems and scions : the branches and buds of a patrilineage, which spring from the radix or root. Cf. radix and stems.

stenographer : one who records spoken words by means of abbreviations, mainly for a court or employer. Roman writers used Tironian shorthand, and medieval scribes developed various types of Latin shorthand. Gregg short-writing was highly developed method for rapid transcription, and became a standard for the preparation of business correspondence, so it briefly thrived as a formal high-school discipline in the twentieth century. Court stenographers have used various kinds of shorthand over the centuries, but finally abandoned shorthand in favor of other methods, such as stenographic typing machines and voice records. A stenographer carefully stores his work in its abbreviated or recorded form, and does not prepare a complete a fully written transcript unless the court requires it for adjudication. Cf. shorthand, Tironian shorthand.

stenography : [1602] the art and process of writing notes in shorthand and then transcribing the shorthand abbreviations into longhand. Many medieval documents, including charters, testaments, and court papers, survive in their shorthand form, and often require decipherment and expansion into longhand, before they can be read and translated. Cf. Tironian shorthand.

stenography : shortwriting with close, small, and narrow abbreviations. Cf. shortwriting.

stentorian : loud, extremely loud. The term derived from Stentor, a herald described by Homer, whose voice was as loud as the combined voices of fifty men.

step- : related by remarriage; a prefix denoting some pseudo-relationship, or quasi-relationship, or surrogacy which was created by marriage or consortium between persons unrelated by blood. Stepchildren and adoptive children are sometimes allowed hereditary rights, whereas foster children are seldom given such recognition.

stepaunt : MoHuSi, FaWiSi; soror vitrici, sister of one’s stepfather; soror novercæ, sister of one’s stepmother.

stepbrother : PaSo, FaSo, MoSo; filius vitrici, filius novercæ, a son of one’s stepparent by a former marriage.

stepchild : SpCh, HuCh, WiCh; child of one’s wife or husband by a former marriage.

stepchildren : PaCh; filii et filiæ de diversis parentibus, sons and daughters of a different parent.

stepdaughter : SpCh; privigna, daughter of one’s wife or husband by a former marriage.

stepfather : [1997] MoHu(2); the modern kin term equivalent to the colonial father-in-law and guardian [1698]. Cf. father-in-law and guardian.

stepfather : MoHu; vitricus, novercus, husband of one’s mother by a subsequent marriage. Cf. padrastro [Sp].

stepnephew : SbSpSo; the son of a sibling’s spouse by a previous marriage, usually unrelated to oneself by blood.

stepneptes : SbSpCh; nepotes privignos, stepnephews and stepnieces, the plural expression denoting the children of one’s sibling-in-law by some previous marriage. Stepneptes who are brought into a marriage are usually the offspring of some absent, natal parent, who has died, or has divorced or separated from his or her spouse.[154]

stepniece : SbSpDa; the daughter of one’s sibling’s spouse by some previous marriage, usually unrelated to oneself by blood.

stepparent : PaSp; the stepfather or stepmother of the sibs of some natal sibship.

stepsibling : PaCh≠Br, FaCh≠Br, MoCh≠Br; one of two or more individuals, who may be unrelated by blood, but happen to share a union of two parents who married subsequently to their births. The natal sibship is the set of natal siblings who become stepsiblings of their stepparent’s children by another marriage. Cf. halfsibling.

stepsiblings : FaWiCh≠Sb, MoHuCh≠Sb; fictive siblings unrelated to the ego by blood; children of the ego’s parent’s second or subsequent spouse, by some previous marriage of the ego’s stepparent. Cf. halfsiblings.

stepsister : PaSpDa; filia vitrici, filia novercæ, a daughter of one’s stepparent by a former marriage.

stepson : SpSo, HuSo, WiSo; privignus, son of one’s husband or wife by a former marriage.

stepson-outlaw : the son of one’s same-sex lover. Cf. inlaw, outlaw. Opp. stepson-in-law.

stepuncle : MoHuBr, FaWiBr; frater vitrici, brother of one’s stepfather; frater novercæ, brother of one’s stepmother.

stercus : stool, the excrement of any animal; a polite equivalent to merda. Cf. fimus.

sterling : easterling, denoting the silver currency circulated by the commerce of the Hanseatic League. Cf. easterling.

steroid : a substance belonging to a family of chemical structures which includes certain hormones such as testosterone and several drugs. Some steroids are used to counteract inflammation, and some are used to masculinize patients and build muscle mass. Cf. anabolic steroid, androgenic steroid.

steward : promus, a servant who dispenses household stores, especially food and drink; one who manages the affairs of another; an officer of state. Cf. seneschal.

stigma : [1588] the uppermost part of the pistil of a flower. The stigma collects pollen, and the pollen germinates atop the stigma. Cf. flower.

stilleto : stilet [Fr] : [It] a small dagger, a pointed weapon used for stabbing; a tool for thrusting which has only a sharp point but no edges along the blade.

stirpes : descents; the plural of stirps; race, family, generation; the kindred family rising from one stirps or common ancestor; the stock, origin, or source and its offspring. Cf. parentela.

stirps : a suborder of living beings, subordinate to species. Cf. classification.

stirps : a taxonomic subclass that ranks below an order, but above a family. Cf. classification, superfamily.

stirps : stirpis : the root-stem; the stock of a tree; stem, root, origin, stock with the roots.

stirrups : styroppis : [Sx] a pair of iron hoops, hung by straps from a horse, in which a horseman places his feet. The family le Strange paid 21d per pair for styroppis in 1520.[156]

stock : a suborder of living being subordinate to species. Cf. classification.

stocks : a wooden frame used to secure a victim’s legs, in an act of public punishment. The victim was seated, and sometimes his back was whipped until bloody. This was a fairly typical punishment for vagabonds, rogues, and petty thieves. Cf. torture.

stomach trouble : a condition that might indicate a hemorrage or cancer; pancreatitis; gastric ulcer perforation.[157]

stone : testicle. A shepherd removes both testicles to make a male into a wether, but removes but one to create a rigsey. Cf. sheep.

stoop : a hawk’s downward plunge as it swoops down from its pitch to attack the quarry. Cf. hawks, pitch.

store : items of store; victuals and provisions taken from the butlery, cellars, larder, or barns of a manor house. Store represents items produced by the manor house or desmesne,[158] or received by the lord as payment in kind. Items of gist and items of store were never given a value in the Household Accounts. Cf. gist, income, mallard of store, mixtelyn of store, pig of store.

storgē : cherishing,[161] love for a partner’s unique traits, devoid of any self interest. Cf. three components of love. Opp. erōs, philia.

story : [Sx] history, an account of things past; a petty narrative, an account of a single incident; a petty fiction, an idle or trifling tale.

strain : a suborder of living being subordinate to species. Cf. classification.

strange : extraneus [Lt] : estrange [Fr] : foreign, not domestic; of another country; unknown, new; remote; unacquainted.

strangeness : foreignness; uncouthness; remoteness from common notions or manners.

stranger : estranger : [Fr] foreigner; one of another country; guest, someone unacquianted; a person from outside the parish; someone disallowed from communication or fellowship. The adjective ‘stranger’ was added to baptismal entries to indicate that the father was not native to the parish.[162]

stranger bonding : the bonding of a migrating female to stranger females in her affined group, the bonding of a migrating male to stranger males in his affined group.

stranger mating : stranger love : the mating of a migrating proband with a stranger of the opposite sex. In patristic societies, the women are the migrating sex, whereas men tend to remain in their natal groups.

strap : to strap upon oneself a dildo or phallus to mimic the sexual foreplay of a male chasing a female. Cf. Eshu, phallus.

strappado : strapade : [Fr] a military torture wherein an offender is hauled by rope up to a beam, and then dropped. The strappado was originally an Italian torture, wherein the bound victim was pulled into the air, by means of a rope passing under his elbows, and then dropped forcibly to the ground. The strappado often resulted in broken bones, or the dislocation of a limb. Cf. torture.

stray : a creature that has wandered beyond its limits; any being lost by wandering away.

string-course : a horizontal line of moulding that protrudes along the wall of a building.

study : studium : the application of one’s mind to books and learning; deep cogitation; attention, contrivance, meditation.

stuprum : defilement; disgrace; fornication, an illicit sexual act; any active or passive sexual behavior held to be unfitting to the status of the Roman citizen.[163]

stilo vetere : sv : st.v. : stilo antiquo : Old Style Julian Calendar; [Gm] nach dem alten Stil dem Julianischen Kalender, by the old style of the Julian Calendar. Cf. English Old Style.

style : stylus; the filiform prolongation of a plant ovary, which bears a stigma at its apex; something slender and long, such as the pin of a sundial.

subculture : [1899] a social, ethnic, economic, or regional group exhibiting characteristics that are distinctive enough to distinguish the group as a subdivision of some larger cultural group. The term implies subordination to the larger culture, and therefore the members of a subculture tend to avoid its use, preferring more flattering denominations, such as supraculture. Cf. metaculture, supraculture, transculture.

subditivus : subditus : subditicius : supposititious, supposed, in the place of another, substituted, counterfeit. Cf. spurious.

subdo : to put, place, lay, set under, in the place of another; to substitute.

subdue : subdo, subjugo : to crush, oppress, overpower, conquer; to tame, subact, break.

subigito : to fondle, lay hands on. This verb is the same as subigo, but has a weaker sense, used in comedy. Cf. subigo.

subigo : to copulate actively in intercourse either homosexual or heterosexual; to bring the female to the male; to master, subdue. Cf. subigito.

subject-homoërotic : invert; the Finocchio type of homosexual male, who exclusively seeks male partners, and show no sexual interest in members of the opposite sex.[164] Opp. object-homoërotic.

subordinary : a charge made with traditional heraldic forms. Cf. common charge. Opp. honorable ordinary.

subscription : subscriptio : something underwritten; consent or attestation given by underwriting one’s name.

subsidy : subsydye : [1523] a special tax assessment. The tax rate differed for ecclesiastics and laymen, and therefore its is customary to designate a secular taxation as a ‘lay subsidy.’[165] Cf. lay subsidy.

subspecies : a suborder of living beings, subordinate to species. Cf. classification.

substituo heredem : to name a second heir in case of the death of the first heir.

substitutio : secondary heir who can assume the office in the event the primary heir cannot succeed.[166]

succession : one of various types of hereditary succession, including succession by heirs male, succession by heirs general, fraternal succession, sororal succession, amitary succession, et cetera.

succession : successio : consecution; a series of one thing or person following another; the transmission of an office from one incumbent to another. Succession must not be confused with inheritance. Although it normally follows the same line as inheritance, succession chiefly pertains to offices of public or community trust which are transmitted during the incumbent’s lifetime. Inheritance is generally restricted to the transmission of family property, and normally occurs after the death of the predecessor. Patriarchal power or patria potestas and ownership may pass to others through either intestate succession, or testamentary succession. The pater or father may employ testamentary succession to recognize usucapio, to transfer properties to persons under his tutelage, and to assign to others the service of a nexus.

succession by reïncarnation : a religious line of succession perpetuated through divination. A type of lama called tulku in Tibet is held to be the reïncarnation of his predecessor. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is believed to be the fourteenth incarnation of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, and legend tells us that he will be the last in his line of succession.

succession per capita : distribution by the heads or polls; the settlement of an estate upon a number of individuals standing in equal degree to the decedent who must share and share alike. Opp. succession per stirpes.

succession per stirpes : succession by representation; succession by stocks; taking property by right of representation, rather than taking it per capita, or in one’s own right. Opp. succession per capita.

successit Johannes electus et confirmatus : elected and confirmed, John succeeded.

succubus : succuba : [1500] prostitute, a demon who assumes female form to have sexual intercourse with men asleep. Cf. incubus.

Sudanese system : bifurcate collateral terminology. Cf. bifurcate merging terminology, Eskimo system, Hawaiian system, Kachin system.

suffix : [1990] the fourth and final part of an e-mail address; the extension that follows the server name of a host computer. The suffix can include extensions to designate countries outside the U.S., such as .jp for Japan, .uk for United Kingdom, or .ca for Canada. Cf. .com, .edu, .net, .org, .gov, .mil. Cf. address.

suffragan : suffraganeus : an assistant bishop, a bishop as a subject to his metropolitan.

suffrage : [300 bc] Athenian women enjoyed the right to cast ballots at great public trials until 300 bc.[170]

suffrage : suffragium : vote, the united voice of persons engaged in public prayer; aid, assistance.

suffragium et honores : the two grants from which all the rights of a citizen arise, namely the right to vote and the capacity to hold magisterial offices.

Sufi’ism : soofyism[171] : a religion that extolled the love of boys in Arabic and Persian poetry.

sugar : sucre [Fr] : saccar [Ar] : a sweet product extracted from sugarcane by cutting its stalk and evaporating its juice. The family le Strange paid 6½d per pound for sugar in 1519.[172]

sugere : to suck; to engage in fellatio. This verb replaced fello in Romance languages. Cf. fello.

sui heredes : a privileged category of descendants, all persons in the power of the deceased who themselves became sui juris upon his death.

sui iuris : no longer a minor; majority; a person of age to manage his own affairs; suæ potestatis. A free male enjoys suffragium et honores, the right to contract a legal marriage (conubium), and patriarchal power over all his own descendants through males. Opp. filius familias.

suicide : suicidium : occisus sua dextra, died by his own hand; uccidersi; self-murder; the horrid crime of destroying oneself.[173]

suit : petition, an address of entreaty; courtship; pursuit, prosecution; suit of court; the attendance of tenants at the court of their lord.

suit covenant : one’s hereditary right to sue at another’s court; permission to sue that was originally granted by the lord’s ancestor to the plaintiff’s ancestor.

Sullivanian love : altruistic love, wherein one becomes concerned as much for his partner’s welfare as his own.[174] This sympathetic and compassionate love typically arises as early as adolescence. Cf. love.

sum : summa : many particulars aggregated to a total; quantity of money; compendium, abridgement, abstraction.

Sumatran matriarchy : the Malay people that use such expressions as sabuah parui ‘of one belly,’ and samandai ‘having one mother.’

Sumerian : [3000-2000 bc] Akkadian, an ancient form of logo-syllabic phonography that evolved into cuneiform syllabaries, such as Elamite and Hurrian. The main dialet of the Sumerian language was called Emegir ‘the princely tongue.’ Sumerian cuneiform was used to represent spoken Sumerian until about 2000 bc, after which time the cuneiform writing continued to be used as a literary script until about 1000 bc. These historical, cuneiform systems of writing were superseded by writing systems descended from Egyptian, such as the West Semitic syllabaries, and the alphabetic systems of Greek and Latin, as well as vocalized Aramaic and Hebrew.

summary lead : a concise summation of an article at its beginning. The summary lead should encompass the five Ws, who, what, when, where, and why. Cf. five Ws.

summon : to cite, excite; to call up, raise; to call with authority, admonish to appear.

summons during father’s lifetime : [1951] a summons to the House of Lords issued to the eldest son of a peer during his father’s lifetime. The House of Lords has sometimes summoned to Parliament the heir apparent of a peer, but in such a case, the Lords direct their summons to the heir apparent in one of the peer’s minor titles. The House of Lords summoned the eldest son of the 2nd Earl of Ancaster in his father’s Barony of Willoughby d’Eresby in 1951, and this was the last instance of such special summons. If the heir apparent happens to predecease his father, then the title in which he was summoned passes to his son and heir.

sūn : sun : [Ch] SoSo; son’s son, descendant. Cf. son [SJ], mago [Jp].

Sunday : [Sx] the first day of the week, a day dedicated to the sun; the Christian sabbath. Cf. Domingo [Sp].

sung : [Ch] shih; religious name; a surname adopted by a Buddhist monastic as his religious name.[175]

superego : the base expressions of aggression and sexuality that arise from the innermost hates and loves of the collective unconsiousness, or id. The superego develops its aggression into the idealized and internalized father, and transforms its sexuality into the idealized and internalized mother.[176] Cf. alter ego, ego, id.

superfamily : a taxonomic subclass that ranks below an order, but above a family. Cf. classification, stirps.

superfetation : new conception during a pregnancy.[177] The ancients believed that hares and rabbits could newly conceive during pregnancy. Cf. hare.

superscription : small letters written after normal letters, but elevated above the normal line, usually to abbreviate some termination or special note. Superscriptions most often appear in ordinal numbers, such as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for first, second, third, but they commonly appear in medieval and colonial writings for all kinds of abbreviations. Superscriptions also appear frequently in mathematics or scientific notations, such as ten to the ninth power (109), and in all kinds of writing as footnote references. Cf. suprascription.

supersedeas : stay, injunction; a writ commanding someone to stay, forbear, or suspend certain action by reason of some cause brought before the court.

superstite : surviving, as in the expression decessit sine prole superstite ‘died without surviving issue,’ or obiit sine prole superstite.

superstition : superstitio : the obervance of uncommanded and unnessary rights or practices; unwarranted fear or fanatical scruples promulgated by religion.

supper : [6 o’clock p.m.] a light repast taken at the end of day. The traditional British supper was very light, consisting mainly of tea, served with bread, butter, and molasses. The Industrial Age caused the timing of meals to change, and therefore people began to abandon late suppers, preferring to have instead a large, family dinner at sunset. Cf. dinner, steerage fare.

Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund [1970] one of four Social Security Trust Funds established in the United States. Cf. Social Security Trust Funds.

supplicatio : agreement; a solemn public entreaty; thanksgiving; fast or festival on account of a public misfortune or success.[178]

supplication : entreaty, a petition humbly delivered; petitionary worship; the adoration of a suppliant or petitioner.

suppono : to put, place, lay under [with dative]; to put next to, to put in place of.

supporters : figures of beasts, birds, and humans included in heraldic designs to hold or frame the arms proper, or ensigns armorial. Normally, there are two supporters depicted on either side of an escutcheon. We surmise that the custom of adding supporters must have arisen in early seal engraving, for the round shape of the seal left gaps on either side of a shield which the designers were no doubt wished fill with decoration.

suppositicius : supposititious; something hypothesized or postulated, howsoever absurd it may seen. Suppositition is vaguer and less probable than simple supposition.

suppositio : subiecto, substitutio, supposititious or substituted children; substitution of a foster child or alumnus for a biological heir, a practice which was banned or regulated by numerous Roman laws.[180]

supposititious : subditivus : subditicius : supposed, in the place of another, substituted. Cf. spurious.

supraculture : a parallel and transcendent culture existing above or beyond ordinary society. A supraculture is the positive and ascending correlative of a subculture. Cf. culture, metaculture, subculture, transculture.

suprascription : letters written directly above other letters as a medieval method of abbreviation. This work represents suprascription by ordinary superscription, because it is inconventient to design and reproduce suprascriptons by computer, and because conventional superscriptions provide a means to sort the abbreviations, whereas suprascription does not. Cf. superscription.

surname : [ad 1066] English surname. The English did not start adopting surnames until after the Norman Conquest (1066). Cf. Chinese surname.

surname : surnom : [Fr] gentilitious name, cognomination, a name added from any accident or quality; the name one shares in common with others in the same family, as opposed to one’s given name or Christian name. Cf. byname, Christian-name, destination.

surname abatement : [Ch Han] a surname debased as punishment. The Chinese demanded that defeated rulers and convicted criminals change their surnames into names of demerit. The family Ying was required to adopt the surname Ching, meaning ‘branded criminal.’ The vanquished ruler Sun was caused to adopt the surname Li, meaning ‘bad devil.’[181]

surname adoption : [Ch] the adoption of a surname by the adoptive son and heir. If a Chinese man adopts a son unrelated to himself by blood, and makes that adoptive son into his heir, then the adoptive son has the right to use the adopter’s surname as his own, and to pass that surname to his male offspring. If a Chinese man adopts his sororal nephew, or his filial grandson, and makes him his heir, then the nephew or grandson will usually adopt a new, compound surname that combines the boy’s adoptive surname with his natal surname. A native son of the Lo family, who becomes the adoptive son of his maternal uncle Chang, will likely be surnamed Chang-lo. The surname Hsu-teng denotes a natal son of the Teng family who became an adoptive son and heir in the Hsu family. A Chinese man without male issue will often choose to adopt, and make his heir, his sister’s son, his daughter’s son, or the son of some female relative.[182]

surname appropriation : [Ch] the deceitful use of a ruler’s surname for the purpose of usurpation or conquest. Liu Chih Yuan posed as the ruler Liu, and Shih Ching Tang posed as the ruler Shih. The pseudonymic Liu and Shih were both initially successful in carving out domains for themselves, but they were both later defeated and discharged.[183]

surname avoidance : [Ch] the Chinese custom of changing one’s surname whenever it somehow conflicts with the given names of a king or emperor. The Chinese believed it was disrespectful and unlucky to use a surname that included any character from the emperor’s given name. Thus, the pronunciation of the surname Chi was changed from Chi to Shi. The surname Chuang was changed to Yen, for the surname Yen happened to be a synonym of Chuang, but was written with a different character. The family Shih changed its surname to Shai, a now name that had both a different meaning, and a slightly different written form.[184] In China and Japan, it was always wrong and unacceptable to use the emperor’s personal name, and this taboo became even more important upon the death of the emperor. Cf. surname abatement, surname taboos.

surname cadency : [Ch] the Chinese custom of modifying a base surname to denote some specific line of descent, usually some junior or cadet branch of a family. The family Ko retains a single character for its lineage of eldest males, but males in cadet lines take the compound surname Chu-ko to distinguish themselves from the senior line. The family Chi has a similar tradition, and uses the surname Chi-sun ‘grandson of Chi’ to denote males of junior houses.[185]

surname change : [Ch] the deliberate obfuscation of one’s name or identity, by adopting (1) a modified surname, (2) a different character for one’s surname, or (3) a synonymous character for one’s surname. The Chinese sometimes assumed aliases to avoid their enemies. Tuan-mu changed his compound surname into a simple surname, by dropping the first character, and retaining Mu as his surname. Wu changed his surname by simply changing the character he used to write it to the homonym Wu. Niu adopted the surname Lao, because the two surnames were synonyms.[186]

surname changes : [Ch] deliberate alterations in Chinese surnames, made to enhance or improve the signature of a family. The surname Ai meant ‘melancholy,’ and therefore the sons of Ai determined to change their surname to a character of similar shape that was instead pronounced Chung, and meant ‘heart.’[187]

surname changes : [Ch] mutations in surnames that occur fairly regularly in China, through various mistakes and errors in pronunciation or orthography.

surname creation : [Ch Han] Liu. Emperor Liu bestowed his surname upon selected councilors and statesmen as a surname of merit.[188]

surname creation : [Ch Han] the invention of a compound surname to honor a foreigner. An emperor desiring to honor a foreigner usually bestowed upon his nominee a compound surname, composed partly of the emperor’s own surname and partly of a character chosen to designate the foreigner.[189]

surname creation : [Ch Ming] Chu. Emperor Chu bestowed his surname upon selected councilors and statesmen as a surname of merit.[190]

surname creation : [Ch Tang] Li. Emperor Li bestowed his surname upon selected councilors and statesmen as a surname of merit.[191]

surname file : a special card catalog of books organized by family names, which is usually available in a genealogical library. Such a catalog must be prepared as a supplement to the routine catalog organized by author, title, and subject.

surname simplification : [Ch] changing one’s surname by adopting a simplified character instead of the name’s traditional, complex form. Character with simplified strokes have been adopted to express the surnames Chang, Shin, Sui, and Wau.[192]

surname simplification : [Ch] changing one’s surname by reducing a two-character, compound name, into a one-character, simple name. Reduction has made the surname Lu from Lu-pu, the surname Chung from Chung-li, and the surname Kow from Ssu-kow.[193]

surname simplification : [Ch] the tendency in China for foreigners to gradually simplify their Chinese surnames. The Chinese encourage foreigners to use Chinese characters to transliterate their surnames, and therefore foreign surnames often appear as multi-syllable, compound surnames in Chinese. The Chinese themselves clearly prefer to use one-character, indigenous surnames, and thus, families of foreign extraction will often devise or invent new surnames that seem to be typically Chinese. Tapa or Ho-ku adopted the Chinese surname Yuan. Shi-yun-yu-lien changed his name to Yun. Tu-ku-hun changed his name to Tu. Po-to-lo changed his name to Pan. Shi-lou changed his name to Kao.[194] The transliteration Shi-lou literally means “this is a tower,” which seems to account for the variant surname Kao, meaning ‘tall, high.’

surname simplification : [En] the Anglo-Norman tendency to make surnames simpler by changing the spellings, or by dropping prefixes. Roxborough has been changed to Roxboro, le Strange has changed to Strange, and Strange has changed to Stronge.

surname suffix : -chun : [Ch Han, 201 bc] the suffix -chun, which denotes one of the 90 districts created during the Han dynasty. The district suffix -chun was customarily added to the surname of a district’s principal family, making a compound surname having political implications.[195]

surname taboos : rules prohibiting the utterance of the surname of someone deceased, or some ruler recently deceased. The tribe Yanomani of Brazil preserved a taboo against mentioning the name of anyone dead, and therefore resorted to guessing games and charades to refer to the dead through circumlocution. Confucian and Buddhist traditions in China, Korea, and Japan tend to perpetuate similar taboos against mentioning the names of the dead, and therefore the family invents posthumous names for their dead, for the purpose of ancestor and relative veneration. Cf. surname avoidance.

surnames included in titles : A peer always has the right to have a surname included in his title. However, the inclusion of a surname sometimes conflicts with the title of another lord standing in the same rank. When two or more lords include the same surname in their titles, then the junior lords titled with the same surname must include territorial designations, suffixed to their titles. The House of Stanley eventually had four peerages, which were titled as follows: the original Baron Stanley (created 1455), Lord Stanley of Alderley (created 1828), Lord Stanley of Bickerstaff (created 1832), and Lord Stanley of Preston (created 1886). The original Baron Curzon (created 1794) was similarly distinguished from Lord Curzon of Kedleston (created 1898). It has become customary to always include a surname in the title of a Life Peer.

surrendered or suspended : a peerage voluntarily surrendered by the holder, or suspended by act of parliament or majesty.

surrexit Hieroboam filius Nabath servus Salomonis filii David et rebellavit contra dominum suum : ... Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, is risen up, and hath rebelled against his lord.[196]

Surrey: Surr. : Southeria : Sudria : Surra : Surria : Surreia : Suthregia : Suthreia : Suthriona.

surrogacy : [1977] the incubation of a mother’s egg in another woman’s womb. The advent of in vitro fertilization led to the controversial practice of attaching a fertilized egg to the wall of stranger mother’s womb for the purpose of initiating a surrogate pregnancy. Between 1977 and 1997, approximately 8,000 babies were carried to term in this manner. Couples who contract the service of a surrogate mother usually pay several thousand dollars for the childbearing, and pay premiums for multiple births, so the total cost may sometimes exceed $15,000. The contracts typically indemnify the surrogate mother against unexpected medical adversities, and stipulate several restrictions on her conduct, such as requiring her not to imbibe alcohol. The practice became enormously publicized and controversial when the surrogate mother of ‘Baby M’ sued to keep the child she had carried. As of 1997, about 10 states had prohibited surrogacy. Ethicists generally denounce the practice as immoral, because it reduces a child to the status of a purchased commodity, or chattel property, and diminishes the sacred nature of parenthood. Cf. orphan at birth.

surrogate : surrogatus : deputy, delegate, the deputy of an ecclesiastical judge.

surrogate family : a family adoptive, step, or foster. A family that temporarily adopts a child, such as a host family that accepts an exchange student as one of its own children, during a term of study, as short as two months, or as long as one year or more.

surrogate father : pater; foster father, adoptive father, stepfather. Cf. genitor.

surrogate mother : a woman who agrees to impregnation with the fertilized egg of another. Cf. surrogacy.

surrogate mother : mater; foster mother, adoptive mother, stepmother. Cf. genitrix.

surrogate mother and natal grandmother : MoMo=Mo; a mother who incubates the egg of her daughter, and subsequently brings forth her natal grandson, out of her womb. This description pertains to a mother who carried to term her daughter’s egg fertilized by her second husband, the stepfather of the daughter. The birth was accomplished with the modern and conventional technology of in vitro fertilization. Of course, the fertilization of the stepdaughter’s egg by her stepfather may be considered incestuous, but there was no blood relationship.

susceptor : godfather, one who lifts up an infant at baptism; undertaker, receiver.

suscipio : to have a child, to lift up a new born child from the ground so as to acknowledge it, to adopt, to receive a person into the relationship or community. Opp. antesuscipio.

suspect : suspectum : to imagine what is not known, with some degree of fear and jealousy; to imagine someone guilty without proof.

suspendatur per collum : sus. per coll. : let him be hanged by the neck (until dead). The judge wrote these words as marginalia, next to the name of the prisoner on the Sheriff’s List. Cf. death by hanging, death by strangulation.

suspension : a method of abbreviation that requires a final period (.) to indicate that the termination of the word has been dropped or truncated. Americans customarily ignore the rules for contraction, and treat all abbreviations as if they were suspensions, by always attaching a final period. British writers prefer to use periods for suspension only. With the advent of computer recording, many careless writers have started to abandon the use of periods altogether. Cf. contraction.

suspension : the termination of a peerage, through neglect or disinterest. Cf. destination.

Sussex : Suss. : Southsexena : Sudsexa : Sussexia : Suthsaxonia : Suthsexia.

suus : his, her; his, her, or its own; the reflexive possessive pronoun of the third person.

suus heres : heirs of the deceased, his descendants through males, agnati, sons in potestate.

suzerain : overlord, a sovereign lord, a superior feudal lord to whom fealty is due.[197]

Swanscombe man : the fossil remains of a European Homo sapiens, dated in the Middle Quaternary period. Cf. Hominidae.

swine souse : swyne soussys; the picked ear of a hog. Two swine souses were purchased at Hunstanton for 9d in the week of 1547/10/7.[199]

sword : [Sx] a weapon used for cutting or thrusting; a weapon used in hand-to-hand combat; an emblem of authority.

sword and dagger : [1592] the implements of a soldier, valued at 8s about 1592.[200]

swordplayer : gladiator, fencer, someone who exhibits in public his skill at weapons.

syllabary : a writing system based on symbols that each represent a discreet syllable. Languages such as Hebrew and Arabic may be classified as syllabaries, because the letters can stand alone as entire syllables. However, Semitic syllabaries do not always require vowel marks, so they fall short of being fully vocalized scripts, and therefore cannot be classed as proper alphabets.

syllabary : Korean syllabary. The Korean alphabet was invented by combining Sanskrit phonetic principles with Chinese-style calligraphy, and therefore the modern Korean syllabary is fully alphabetic, and is perhaps the perfect phonetic system in the world today. Cf. alphabet, Hangul, syllable.

syllable : a single spoken sound, or a sequence of spoken sounds ranging from two sounds to four sounds. Cf. syllabary.

symmetrical cross cousin marriage : bilateral cross cousin marriage, wherein the husband marries with a spouse who is both his MoBrDa and his FaSiDa. Opp. asymmetrical cross cousin marriage.

symmetrical relationship : a reciprocal relationship of two equals, who are close to one another in age, maturity, emotional composition, and general interests.[201]

Symposium : the name of two tracts, authored respectively by Plato and Xenophon. Plato’s work is a dialogue in the presence of Socrates, which features Phaedrus’ famous speech in praise of boy-love. Xenophon’s work has a looser and less formal presentation.

syndrome : concurrence, concurrent action. Cf. Lolita syndrome, Mike Hammer syndrome.

Synod of Rheims : [1157] the Christian congregation that condemned Catharism and Manicheism. The participants believed that Cathars were holding sex orgies. They further held that the Manicheians were encouraging sexual promiscuity, and thereby undermining the sacrament of marriage, through a network of itinerant weavers.

Synod of Septinnes : [ad 744] the Christian congregation that outlawed pagan transvestism.

Synod of Tours : [1396] the Christian congregation that condemned the worship of sex images.

syphillis : [1492] a sexually transmitted disease (STD) native to sheep, which passed to humans around the time Columbus discovered the New World in 1492. The disease often leads to dementia and blindness, and some historians have suggested that certain monarchs contracted the disease, such as Ivan the Terrible and Henry VIII. The advent of penicillin and other antibiotics has led to a wholesale diminution of syphillis, such that only 4.4 cases per 100,000 were diagnosed in 1956, and only 3.9 cases per 100,000 were counted in 1996. Doctors now believe it might be possible to eradicate syphillis throughout the world, just as smallpox and polio have been controlled.

[147] Ben Jonson, cited by Johnson.

[148] Murdock 1949: 261. Schusky 1972: 91.

[149] Oestmann 1994: 190.

[150] Scribner’s Monthly, 1877/9: 14.5. EGH 1997/9-10: 16.

[151] Scribner’s Monthly, 1877/9: 14.5. EGH 1997/9-10: 16.

[152] Scribner’s Monthly, 1877/9: 14.5. EGH 1997/9-10: 16.

[153] Parkin 1997: 28.

[154] BARO 14.#11211211.1-4, Children of Sir George Stanley and Johanna le Strange, and stepneptes of Henry VII.

[155] HL: 316, 331.

[156] HHA 1520.

[157] Gormley 1989: 104.

[158] Gurney 1833: 425.11.l, sub mixtelyn of store.

[159] Gurney, 562.16.

[160] Gurney, 562.16.

[161] Eglinton 1964: 54.

[162] Baptism Register of Saint Sidwell, Exeter, 1736. Hey 1993: 180.

[163] Boswell 1980: 122.

[164] Eglinton 1964: 488.

[165] See HHA, sub 1525/2/8. Gurney 1833: 462.6.n.

[166] Thomas Collett Sandars, The Institutes of Justinian with English Introduction, Translation, and Notes, London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1868. New impression, 1952.

[167] BALC, s.v. John Strang of Teasses.

[168] BART, s.v. Katharine Hastings née le Strange.

[169] John Strang of Teasses, BALC 1.1*

[170] Plutarch. Diner 1965: 148.

[171] Symonds. Eglinton 1964: 489.

[172] HHA 1519.

[173] Savage, cited by Johnson.

[174] Eglinton 1964: 489.

[175] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[176] Fabricius 1989: 227.

[177] Boswell 1980: 139.

[178] HL: 321.

[179] Davis 1924: 619.

[180] Boswell 1988: 74.n71.

[181] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[182] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[183] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[184] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[185] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[186] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[187] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[188] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[189] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[190] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[191] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[192] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[193] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[194] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[195] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[196] 2 Chronicles, 13.7. II Paralipomenon, 13.6.

[197] HL: 64.

[198] Gurney 1833: 422.2.

[199] Gurney, 561.3.

[200] Henslowe.

[201] Eglinton 1964: 489.

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—St-Sy—

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Mailing List | Guest Book | Contact | Links
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