larynx and the upper part of the trachea, -- a frequent operation for obstruction to breathing.

 Lar"ynx (lr"ks; 277), n. [NL. from Gr. la'rygx, - yggos.] (Anat.)
 The expanded upper end of the windpipe or trachea, connected with the hyoid bone or cartilage. It contains the vocal cords, which produce the voice by their vibrations, when they are stretched and a current of air passes between them. The larynx is connected with the pharynx by an opening, the glottis, which, in mammals, is protected by a lidlike epiglottis.

 In the framework of the human larynx, the thyroid cartilage, attached to the hyoid bone, makes the protuberance on the front of the neck known as Adam's apple, and is articulated below to the ringlike cricoid cartilage. This is narrow in front and high behind, where, within the thyroid, it is surmounted by the two arytenoid cartilages, from which the vocal cords pass forward to be attached together to the front of the thyroid. See Syrinx.

 Las (?), n. A lace. See Lace. [Obs.] Chaucer.
 Las, a. & adv. Less. [Obs.] Chaucer.
 Las"car (?), n. [Per. & Hind. lashkar an army, an inferior artillery man, a cooly, a native sailor.] A native sailor, employed in European vessels; also, a menial employed about arsenals, camps, camps, etc.; a camp follower. [East Indies] Las"ci*ous (?), a. Loose; lascivious. [Obs.] "To depaint lascious wantonness." Holland.
 Las*civ"i*en*cy (ls*sv"*en*s), n. [See Lascivient.]
 Lasciviousness; wantonness. [Obs.]

 Las*civ"i*ent (-ent), a. [L. lasciviens, pr. of lascivire to be wanton, fr. lascivus. See Lascivious.] Lascivious. [Obs.] Dr.
 H. More.
 Las*civ"i*ous (-s), a. [L. lascivia wantonness, fr. lascivus wanton; cf. Gr. la'stauros lecherous, lh^n to wish, Skr. lash to desire.] 1. Wanton; lewd; lustful; as, lascivious men; lascivious desires. Milton.
2. Tending to produce voluptuous or lewd emotions.

 He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

Shak.
 -- Las*civ"i*ous*ly, adv. -- Las*civ"i*ous*ness, n. La"ser*wort' (l"sr*wûrt'), n. [L. laser the juice of the laserwort.] (Bot.) Any plant of the umbelliferous genus Laserpitium, of several species (as L. glabrum, and L. siler), the root of which yields a resinous substance of a bitter taste. The genus is mostly European.

 Lash (lsh), n. [OE. lasche; cf. D. lasch piece set in, joint, seam, G. lashe latchet, a bit of leather, gusset, stripe, laschen to furnish with flaps, to lash or slap, Icel. laski gusset, flap, laska to break.] 1. The thong or braided cord of a whip, with which the blow is given.

 I observed that your whip wanted a lash to it.

Addison.
2. A leash in which an animal is caught or held; hence, a snare.
 [Obs.]

3. A stroke with a whip, or anything pliant and tough; as, the culprit received thirty-nine lashes.

4. A stroke of satire or sarcasm; an expression or retort that cuts or gives pain; a cut.

 The moral is a lash at the vanity of arrogating that to ourselves which succeeds well.

L'Estrange.
5. A hair growing from the edge of the eyelid; an eyelash.

6. In carpet weaving, a group of strings for lifting simultaneously certain yarns, to form the figure.

 Lash (lsh), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Lashed (?); p. pr.
 & vb. n. Lashng.] 1. To strike with a lash; to whip or scourge with a lash, or with something like one.

 We lash the pupil, and defraud the ward.

Dryden.
2. To strike forcibly and quickly, as with a lash; to beat, or beat upon, with a motion like that of a lash; as, a whale lashes the sea with his tail.

 And big waves lash the frighted shores.

Dryden.
3. To throw out with a jerk or quickly.

 He falls, and lashing up his heels, his rider throws.

Dryden.
4. To scold; to berate; to satirize; to censure with severity; as, to lash vice.

 Lash, v. i. To ply the whip; to strike; to utter censure or sarcastic language.

 To laugh at follies, or to lash at vice.

Dryden.
To lash out, to strike out wildly or furiously.

 Lash, v. t. [Cf. D. lasschen to fasten together, lasch piece, joint, Sw. laska to stitch, Dan. laske stitch. See Lash, n. ] To bind with a rope, cord, thong, or chain, so as to fasten; as, to lash something to a spar; to lash a pack on a horse's back.

 Lash"er (?), n. One who whips or lashes.

 Lash"er, n. 1. A piece of rope for binding or making fast one thing to another; -- called also lashing.

2. A weir in a river. [Eng.] Halliwell.
 Lash"ing, n. The act of one who, or that which, lashes; castigation; chastisement. South.
Lashing out, a striking out; also, extravagance.

 Lash"ing, n. See 2d Lasher.

 Lask (?), n. A diarrhea or flux. [Obs.] Holland.
 Las"ket (?), n. [Cf. Lash, Latching.] (Naut.) latching.

 Lass (ls), n. [OE. lasse; prob. of Celtic origin; cf. W. llodes girl, fem. of llawd lad. √123. See Lad a youth.] A young woman; a girl; a sweetheart.

 Lasse (?), a. & adv. Less. [Obs.] Chaucer.
 Las"sie (?), n. A young girl; a lass. [Scot.]

 Las"si*tude (?), n. [L. lassitudo, fr. lassus faint, weary; akin to E. late: cf. F. lassitude. See Late.] A condition of the body, or mind, when its voluntary functions are performed with difficulty, and only by a strong exertion of the will; languor; debility; weariness.

 The corporeal instruments of action being strained to a high pitch...
 will soon feel a lassitude.

Barrow.
 Lass"lorn' (?), a. Forsaken by a lass. Shak.
 Lass"o (ls"s) n.; pl. Lassos (-sz). [Sp. lazo, L. laqueus. See Lace.] A rope or long thong of leather with a running noose, used for catching horses, cattle, etc.

Lasso cell (Zoöl.), one of a peculiar kind of defensive and offensive st


notably in the term 'trendoid' for victims of terminal hipness). This is probably traceable to the popularization of the term droid in "Star Wars" and its sequels. (See also windoid.)
Coinages in both forms have been common in science fiction for at least fifty years, and hackers (who are often SF fans) have probably been making '-oid' jargon for almost that long [though GLS and I can personally confirm only that they were already common in the mid-1970s --ESR].
Node:old fart, Next:Old Testament, Previous:-oid, Up:= O = old fart n. Tribal elder. A title self-assumed with remarkable frequency by (esp.) Usenetters who have been programming for more than about 25 years; often appears in sig blocks attached to Jargon File contributions of great archeological significance. This is a term of insult in the second or third person but one of pride in first person.
Node:Old Testament, Next:on the gripping hand, Previous:old fart, Up:= O = Old Testament n.
[C programmers] The first edition of K&R, the sacred text describing Classic C. Node:on the gripping hand, Next:one-banana problem, Previous:Old Testament, Up:= O = on the gripping hand In the progression that starts "On the one hand..." and continues "On the other hand..." mainstream English may add "on the third hand..." even though most people don't have three hands. Among hackers, it is just as likely to be "on the gripping hand". This metaphor supplied the title of Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's 1993 SF novel "The Gripping Hand" which involved a species of hostile aliens with three arms (the same species, in fact, referenced in juggling eggs). As with TANSTAAFL and con, this usage one of the naturalized imports from SF fandom frequently observed among hackers.
Node:one-banana problem, Next:one-line fix, Previous:on the gripping hand, Up:= O = one-banana problem n. At mainframe shops, where the computers have operators for routine administrivia, the programmers and hardware people tend to look down on the operators and claim that a trained monkey could do their job. It is frequently observed that the incentives that would be offered said monkeys can be used as a scale to describe the difficulty of a task. A one-banana problem is simple; hence, "It's only a one-banana job at the most; what's taking them so long?"
At IBM, folklore divides the world into one-, two-, and three-banana problems. Other cultures have different hierarchies and may divide them more finely; at ICL, for example, five grapes (a bunch) equals a banana. Their upper limit for the in-house sysapes is said to be two bananas and three grapes (another source claims it's three bananas and one grape, but observes "However, this is subject to local variations, cosmic rays and ISO"). At a complication level any higher than that, one asks the manufacturers to send someone around to check things.
See also Infinite-Monkey Theorem.
Node:one-line fix, Next:one-liner wars, Previous:one-banana problem, Up:= O = one-line fix n. Used (often sarcastically) of a change to a program that is thought to be trivial or insignificant right up to the moment it crashes the system. Usually 'cured' by another one-line fix. See also I didn't change anything!
Node:one-liner wars, Next:ooblick, Previous:one-line fix, Up:= O = one-liner wars n. A game popular among hackers who code in the language APL (see write-only language and line noise). The objective is to see who can code the most interesting and/or useful routine in one line of operators chosen from APL's exceedingly hairy primitive set. A similar amusement was practiced among TECO hackers and is now popular among Perl aficionados.
Ken Iverson, the inventor of APL, has been credited with a one-liner that, given a number N, produces a list of the prime numbers from 1 to N inclusive. It looks like this: (2 = 0 +.= T o.| T) / T <- iN where 'o' is the APL null character, the assignment arrow is a single character, and 'i' represents the APL iota.
Here's a Perl program that prints primes: In the Perl world this game is sometimes called Perl Golf because the player with the fewest (key)strokes wins.
Node:ooblick, Next:op, Previous:one-liner wars, Up:= O = ooblick /oo'blik/ n.
[from the Dr. Seuss title "Bartholomew and the Oobleck"; the spelling 'oobleck' is still current in the mainstream] A bizarre semi-liquid sludge made from cornstarch and water. Enjoyed among hackers who make batches during playtime at parties for its amusing and extremely non-Newtonian behavior; it pours and splatters, but resists rapid motion like a solid and will even crack when hit by a hammer. Often found near lasers.
Here is a field-tested ooblick recipe contributed by GLS: 1 cup cornstarch 1 cup baking soda 3/4 cup water N drops of food coloring This recipe isn't quite as non-Newtonian as a pure cornstarch ooblick, but has an appropriately slimy feel.
Some, however, insist that the notion of an ooblick recipe is far too mechanical, and that it is best to add the water in small increments so that the various mixed states the cornstarch goes through as it becomes ooblick can be grokked in fullness by many hands. For optional ingredients of this experience, see the "Ceremonial Chemicals" section of Appendix B. Node:op, Next:open, Previous:ooblick, Up:= O = op /op/ n.
1. In England and Ireland, common verbal abbreviation for 'operator', as in system operator. Less common in the U.S., where sysop seems to be preferred. 2. [IRC] Someone who is endowed with privileges on IRC, not limited to a particular channel. These are generally people who are in charge of the IRC server at their particular site. Sometimes used interchangeably with CHOP. Compare sysop.
Node:open, Next:open source, Previous:op, Up:= O = open n. Abbreviation for 'open (or left) parenthesis' -- used when necessary to eliminate oral ambiguity. To read aloud the LISP form (DEFUN FOO (X) (PLUS X 1)) one might say: "Open defun foo, open eks close, open, plus eks one, close close."
Node:open source, Next:open switch, Previous:open, Up:= O = open source n.
[common; also adj. 'open-source'] Term coined in March 1998 following the Mozilla release to describe software distributed in source under licenses guaranteeing anybody rights to freely use, modify, and redistribute, the code. The intent was to be able to sell the hackers' ways of doing software to industry and the mainstream by avoid the negative connotations (to suits) of the term "free software". For discussion of the followon tactics and their consequences, see the Open Source Initiative site.
Node:open switch, Next:operating system, Previous:open source, Up:= O = open switch n.
[IBM: prob. from railroading] An unresolved question, issue, or problem.
Node:operating system, Next:optical diff, Previous:open switch, Up:= O = operating system n.
[techspeak] (Often abbreviated 'OS') The foundation software of a machine; that which schedules tasks, allocates storage, and presents a default interface to the user between applications.
The facilities an operating system provides and its general design philosophy exert an extremely strong influence on programming style and on the technical cultures that grow up around its host machines. Hacker folklore has been shaped primarily by the Unix, ITS, TOPS-10, TOPS-20/TWENEX, WAITS, CP/M, MS-DOS, and Multics operating systems (most importantly by ITS and Unix).
Node:optical diff, Next:optical grep, Previous:operating


the properties of, fibrin; as, fibrious exudation.

 Fi'bro*car"ti*lage (?), n. [L. fibra a fiber + E. cartilage.]
 (Anat.) A kind of cartilage with a fibrous matrix and approaching fibrous connective tissue in structure. -- Fi'bro*car'ti*lag"i*nous (#), a. Fi'bro*chon*dros"te*al (?), a. [L. fibra a fiber + gr. &?; cartilage + &?; bone.] (Anat.) Partly fibrous, partly cartilaginous, and partly osseous. St. George Mivart.
 Fi"broid (?), a. [L. fibra a fiber + -oid.] (Med.)
 Resembling or forming fibrous tissue; made up of fibers; as, fibroid tumors. - - n. A fibroid tumor; a fibroma.

Fibroid degeneration, a form of degeneration in which organs or tissues are converted into fibroid tissue. -- Fibroid phthists, a form of pulmonary consumption associated with the formation of fibrous tissue in the lungs, and the gradual atrophy of the lungs, from the pressure due to the contraction of this tissue.

 Fi"bro*in (? or?), n. [L. fibra a fiber.] (Chem.) A variety of gelatin; the chief ingredient of raw silk, extracted as a white amorphous mass.

 Fi"bro*lite (? or?), n. [L. fibra a fiber + -lite: cf. F. fibrolithe.] (Min.) A silicate of alumina, of fibrous or columnar structure. It is like andalusite in composition; -- called also sillimanite, and bucholizite.

 ||Fi*bro"ma (?), n. [NL. See Fiber, and -oma.] (Med.) A tumor consisting mainly of fibrous tissue, or of same modification of such tissue.

 ||Fi'bro*spon"gi*æ (?), n. pl. [NL., fr. L. fibra a fiber + spongia a sponge.] (Zoöl.) An order of sponges having a fibrous skeleton, including the commercial sponges.

 Fi"brous (?), a. [Cf. F. fibreux.] Containing, or consisting of, fibers; as, the fibrous coat of the cocoanut; the fibrous roots of grasses. -- Fi"brous*ness, n. Fi'bro*vas"cu*lar (?), a. [L. fibra a fiber + E. vascular.]
 (Bot.) Containing woody fiber and ducts, as the stems of all flowering plants and ferns; -- opposed to cellular.

 Fib"ster (?), n. One who tells fibs. [Jocular] ||Fib"u*la (?), n.; pl. FibulÆ (#). [L., clasp, buckle.] 1. A brooch, clasp, or buckle.

 Mere fibulæ, without a robe to clasp.

Wordsworth.
2. (Anat.) The outer and usually the smaller of the two bones of the leg, or hind limb, below the knee.

3. (Surg.) A needle for sewing up wounds.

 Fib"u-lar (?), a. Pertaining to the fibula.

 ||Fib'u*la"re (?), n.; pl. Fibularia (#). [NL. See Fibula.] (Anat.) The bone or cartilage of the tarsus, which articulates with the fibula, and corresponds to the calcaneum in man and most mammals.

 Fice (?), n. A small dog; -- written also fise, fyce, fiste, etc. [Southern U.S.]

 Fi*ché (?), a. (Her.) See FitchÉ.

 Fich"tel*ite (?), n. (Min.) A white crystallized mineral resin from the Fichtelgebirge, Bavaria.

 Fich"u (?), n. [F., neckerchief.] A light cape, usually of lace, worn by women, to cover the neck and throat, and extending to the shoulders.

 Fic"kle (?), a. [OE. fikel untrustworthy, deceitful, AS. ficol, fr. fic, gefic, fraud, deceit; cf. fcen deceit, OS.
 f&?;kn, OHG. feichan, Icel. feikn portent. Cf.
 Fidget.] Not fixed or firm; liable to change; unstable; of a changeable mind; not firm in opinion or purpose; inconstant; capricious; as, Fortune's fickle wheel. Shak.
 They know how fickle common lovers are.

Dryden.
Syn. -- Wavering; irresolute; unsettled; vacillating; unstable; inconsonant; unsteady; variable; mutable; changeful; capricious; veering; shifting.

 Fic"kle*ness (?), n. The quality of being fickle; instability; inconsonancy. Shak.
 Fic"kly (?), adv. In a fickle manner. [Obs.] Pepys.
 ||Fi"co (?), n.; pl. Ficoes (#). [It., a fig, fr. L. ficus. See Fig.] A fig; an insignificant trifle, no more than the snap of one's thumb; a sign of contempt made by the fingers, expressing.
 A fig for you.

 Steal! foh, a fico for the phrase.

Shak.
 Fic"tile (?), a. [L. fictilis. See Fiction.] Molded, or capable of being molded, into form by art; relating to pottery or to molding in any soft material.

Fictile earth is more fragile than crude earth.

Bacon.
 The earliest specimens of Italian fictile art.

C. Wordsworth.
Fictile ware, ware made of any material which is molded or shaped while soft; hence, pottery of any sort.

 -- Fic"tile*ness, n. -- Fic*til"i*ty (#), n. Fic"tion (?), n. [F. fiction, L. fictio, fr. fingere, fictum to form, shape, invent, feign. See Feign.] 1. The act of feigning, inventing, or imagining; as, by a mere fiction of the mind. Bp. Stillingfleet.
2. That which is feigned, invented, or imagined; especially, a feigned or invented story, whether oral or written. Hence: A story told in order to deceive; a fabrication; -- opposed to fact, or reality.

 The fiction of those golden apples kept by a dragon.

Sir W. Raleigh.
 When it could no longer be denied that her flight had been voluntary, numerous fictions were invented to account for it.

Macaulay.
3. Fictitious literature; comprehensively, all works of imagination; specifically, novels and romances.

 The office of fiction as a vehicle of instruction and moral elevation has been recognized by most if not all great educators.

Dict. of Education.
4. (Law) An assumption of a possible thing as a fact, irrespective of the question of its truth. Wharton.
5. Any like assumption made for convenience, as for passing more rapidly over what is not disputed, and arriving at points really at issue.

Syn. -- Fabrication; invention; fable; falsehood. -- Fiction, Fabrication. Fiction is opposed to what is real; fabrication to what is true. Fiction is designed commonly to amuse, and sometimes to instruct; a fabrication is always intended to mislead and deceive. In the novels of Sir Walter Scott we have fiction of the highest order. The poems of Ossian, so called, were chiefly fabrications by Macpherson.

 Fic"tion*al (?), a. Pertaining to, or characterized by, fiction; fictitious


, and having the care of matters pertaining to the religious interests of that church, as the admission and dismission of members, discipline, etc. -- Court of Session, the supreme civil court of Scotland. -- Quarter sessions. (Eng.Law) See under Quarter. -- Sessions of the peace, sittings held by justices of the peace. [Eng.]

 Ses"sion*al (?), a. Of or pertaining to a session or sessions.

 Sess"pool' (?), n. [Prov. E. suss hogwash, soss a dirty mess, a puddle + E. pool a puddle; cf. Gael. ses a coarse mess.] Same as Cesspool.

 Ses"terce (?), n. [L. sestertius (sc. nummus), fr. sestertius two and a half; semis half + tertius third: cf. F. sesterce.]
 (Rom. Antiq.) A Roman coin or denomination of money, in value the fourth part of a denarius, and originally containing two asses and a half, afterward four asses, -- equal to about two pence sterling, or four cents.

 The sestertium was equivalent to one thousand sesterces, equal to £8 17s 1d. sterling, or about $43, before the reign of Augustus. After his reign its value was about £7 16s. 3d. sterling. The sesterce was originally coined only in silver, but later both in silver and brass.

 Ses*tet" (?), n. [It. sestetto, fr. sesto sixth, L. sextus, fr. sex six.] 1. (Mus.) A piece of music composed for six voices or six instruments; a sextet; -- called also sestuor. [Written also sestett, sestette.]

2. (Poet.) The last six lines of a sonnet.

 ||Ses*tet"to (?), n.[It.] (Mus.) A sestet.

 Ses"tine (?), n. See Sextain.

 Ses"tu*or (?), n. [F.] A sestet.

 Set (st), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Set; p. pr. & vb.
 n. Setting.] [OE. setten, AS. setton; akin to OS. settian, OFries. setta, D. zetten, OHG. sezzen, G. setzen, Icel. setja, Sw. sätta, Dan. s&?;tte, Goth.
 satjan; causative from the root of E. sit. √154. See Sit, and cf. Seize.] 1. To cause to sit; to make to assume a specified position or attitude; to give site or place to; to place; to put; to fix; as, to set a house on a stone foundation; to set a book on a shelf; to set a dish on a table; to set a chest or trunk on its bottom or on end.

 I do set my bow in the cloud.

Gen. ix. 13.
2. Hence, to attach or affix (something) to something else, or in or upon a certain place.

Set your affection on things above.

Col. iii. 2.
 The Lord set a mark upon Cain.

Gen. iv. 15.
3. To make to assume specified place, condition, or occupation; to put in a certain condition or state (described by the accompanying words); to cause to be.

 The Lord thy God will set thee on high.

Deut. xxviii. 1.
 I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother.

Matt. x. 35.
 Every incident sets him thinking.

Coleridge.
4. To fix firmly; to make fast, permanent, or stable; to render motionless; to give an unchanging place, form, or condition to.
 Specifically: -- (a) To cause to stop or stick; to obstruct; to fasten to a spot; hence, to occasion difficulty to; to embarrass; as, to set a coach in the mud.

 They show how hard they are set in this particular.

Addison.
(b) To fix beforehand; to determine; hence, to make unyielding or obstinate; to render stiff, unpliant, or rigid; as, to set one's countenance.

 His eyes were set by reason of his age.

1 Kings xiv. 4.
 On these three objects his heart was set.

Macaulay.
 Make my heart as a millstone, set my face as a flint.

Tennyson.
(c) To fix in the ground, as a post or a tree; to plant; as, to set pear trees in an orchard.

(d) To fix, as a precious stone, in a border of metal; to place in a setting; hence, to place in or amid something which serves as a setting; as, to set glass in a sash.

 And him too rich a jewel to be set In vulgar metal for a vulgar use.

Dryden.
(e) To render stiff or solid; especially, to convert into curd; to curdle; as, to set milk for cheese.

5. To put into a desired position or condition; to adjust; to regulate; to adapt. Specifically: -- (a) To put in order in a particular manner; to prepare; as, to set (that is, to hone) a razor; to set a saw.

 Tables for to sette, and beddes make.

Chaucer.
(b) To extend and bring into position; to spread; as, to set the sails of a ship.

(c) To give a pitch to, as a tune; to start by fixing the keynote; as, to set a psalm. Fielding.
(d) To reduce from a dislocated or fractured state; to replace; as, to set a broken bone.

(e) To make to agree with some standard; as, to set a watch or a clock.

(f) (Masonry) To lower into place and fix solidly, as the blocks of cut stone in a structure.

6. To stake at play; to wager; to risk.

 I have set my life upon a cast, And I will stand the hazard of the die.

Shak.
7. To fit with music; to adapt, as words to notes; to prepare for singing.

Set thy own songs, and sing them to thy lute.

Dryden.
8. To determine; to appoint; to assign; to fix; as, to set a time for a meeting; to set a price on a horse.

9. To adorn with something infixed or affixed; to stud; to variegate with objects placed here and there.

 High on their heads, with jewels richly set, Each lady wore a radiant coronet.

Dryden.
 Pastoral dales thin set with modern farms.

Wordsworth.
10. To value; to rate; -- with at.

 Be you contented, wearing now the garland, To have a son set your decrees at naught.

Shak.
 I do not set my life at a pin's fee.

Shak.
11. To point out the seat or position of, as birds, or other game; -- said of hunting dogs.

12. To establish as a rule; to furnish; to prescribe; to assign; as, to set an example; to set lessons to be learned.

13. To suit; to become; as, it sets him ill. [Scot.]

14. (Print.) To compose; to arrange in words, lines, etc.; as, to set type; to set a page.

To set abroach. See Abroach. [Obs.] Shak. -- To set against, to oppose; to set in comparison with, or to oppose to, as an equivalent in exchange; as, to set one thing against another. -- To set agoing, to cause to move. -- To set apart, to separate to a particular use; to separate from the rest; to reserve. -- To set a saw, to bend each tooth a little, every alternate one being bent to one side, and the intermediate ones to the other side, so that the opening made by the saw may be a little wider


R. R (är). R, the eighteenth letter of the English alphabet, is a vocal consonant. It is sometimes called a semivowel, and a liquid.
 See Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 178, 179, and 250-254. "R is the dog's letter and hurreth in the sound." B. Jonson.
 In words derived from the Greek language the letter h is generally written after r to represent the aspirated sound of the Greek "r, but does not affect the pronunciation of the English word, as rhapsody, rhetoric.

 The English letter derives its form from the Greek through the Latin, the Greek letter being derived from the Phœnician, which, it is believed, is ultimately of Egyptian origin. Etymologically, R is most closely related to l, s, and n; as in bandore, mandole; purple, L. purpura; E. chapter, F. chapitre, L. capitulum; E. was, were; hare, G. hase; E. order, F. ordre, L. ordo, ordinis; E. coffer, coffin.
The three Rs, a jocose expression for reading, (w)riting, and (a)rithmetic, -- the fundamentals of an education.

 Ra (rä), n. A roe; a deer. [Obs.] Chaucer.
 Ra-. A prefix, from the Latin re and ad combined, coming to us through the French and Italian. See Re-, and Ad-.

 Raash (räsh), n. [Cf. Ar. ra'ash trembling, tremor.] (Zoöl.)
 The electric catfish. [Written also raasch.]

 Rab (rb), n. A rod or stick used by masons in mixing hair with mortar.

 Rab"at (rb"t), n. [See Rabot.] A polishing material made of potter's clay that has failed in baking.

 Ra*bate" (r*bt"), v. t. [F. rabattre to beat down; pref. re- + abattre. See Abate, and cf. Rebate, v.] (Falconry) To recover to the fist, as a hawk. [Obs.]

 Rab"a*tine (rb"*tn), n. [See Rabato.] A collar or cape. [Obs.] Sir W. Scott.
 Ra*ba"to (r*b"t), n. [F. rabat, fr. rabattre. See Rabate.] A kind of ruff for the neck; a turned-down collar; a rebato.
 [Obs.] Shak.
 Rab*bate" (rb*bt"), v. t. [See Rabate.] To abate or diminish.
 [Obs.] -- n. Abatement. [Obs.]

 Rab"bet (rb"bt), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Rabbeted; p. pr.
 & vb. n. Rabbeting.] [F. raboter to plane, plane down,rabot a plane; pref. rere- + OF. abouter, aboter. See Abut, and cf. Rebut.] 1. To cut a rabbet in; to furnish with a rabbet.

2. To unite the edges of, as boards, etc., in a rabbet joint.

 Rab"bet, n. [See Rabbet, v., and cf. Rebate, n.]

1. (Carp.) A longitudinal channel, groove, or recess cut out of the edge or face of any body; especially, one intended to receive another member, so as to break or cover the joint, or more easily to hold the members in place; thus, the groove cut for a panel, for a pane of glass, or for a door, is a rabbet, or rebate.

2. Same as Rabbet joint, below.

Rabbet joint (Carp.), a joint formed by fitting together rabbeted boards or timbers; -- called also rabbet. -- Rabbet plane, a joiner's plane for cutting a rabbet. Moxon.
 Rab"bi (rb"b or -b; 277), n.; pl. Rabbis (-bz or -bz) or Rabbies. [L., fr. Gr. "rabbi', Heb. rab my master, from rab master, lord, teacher, akin to Ar. rabb.] Master; lord; teacher; -- a Jewish title of respect or honor for a teacher or doctor of the law. "The gravest rabbies." Milton.
 Be not ye called Rabbi, for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.

Matt. xxiii. 8.
 Rab"bin (rb"bn), n. [F.] Same as Rabbi.

 { Rab*bin"ic (rb*bn"k), Rab*bin"ic*al (-*kal), } a. [Cf. F.
 rabbinique.] Of or pertaining to the rabbins or rabbis, or pertaining to the opinions, learning, or language of the rabbins.
 "Comments staler than rabbinic." Lowell.
 We will not buy your rabbinical fumes.

Milton.
 Rab*bin"ic (rb*bn"k), n. The language or dialect of the rabbins; the later Hebrew.

 Rab*bin"ic*al*ly, adv. In a rabbinical manner; after the manner of the rabbins.

 Rab"bin*ism (rb"bn*z'm), n. [Cf. F. rabbinisme.] 1. A rabbinic expression or phraseology; a peculiarity of the language of the rabbins.

2. The teachings and traditions of the rabbins.

 Rab"bin*ist, n. [Cf. F. rabbiniste.] One among the Jews who adhered to the Talmud and the traditions of the rabbins, in opposition to the Karaites, who rejected the traditions.

 Rab"bin*ite (-t), n. Same as Rabbinist.

 Rab"bit (rb"bt), n. [OE. rabet, akin to OD. robbe, robbeken.]
 (Zoöl.) Any of the smaller species of the genus Lepus, especially the common European species (Lepus cuniculus), which is often kept as a pet, and has been introduced into many countries. It is remarkably prolific, and has become a pest in some parts of Australia and New Zealand.

 The common American rabbit (L. sylvatica) is similar but smaller.
 See Cottontail, and Jack rabbit, under 2d Jack. The larger species of Lepus are commonly called hares. See Hare.

Angora rabbit (Zoöl.), a variety of the domestic rabbit having long, soft fur. -- Rabbit burrow, a hole in the earth made by rabbits for shelter and habitation. -- Rabbit fish. (Zoöl.)
(a) The northern chimæra (Chimæra monstrosa). (b) Any one of several species of plectognath fishes, as the bur fish, and puffer. The term is also locally applied to other fishes. -- Rabbits' ears. (Bot.) See Cyclamen. -- Rabbit warren, a piece of ground appropriated to the breeding and preservation of rabbits. Wright.
 -- Rock rabbit. (Zoöl.) See Daman, and Klipdas. -- Welsh rabbit, a dish of which the chief constituents are toasted bread and toasted cheese, prepared in various ways. The name is said to be a corruption of Welsh rare bit, but perhaps it is merely a humorous designation.

 Rab"bit*ing, n. The hunting of rabbits. T. Hughes.
 Rab"bit*ry (-r), n. A place where rabbits are kept; especially, a collection of hutches for tame rabbits.

 Rab"ble (rb"b'l), n. [Etymol. uncertain.] (Iron Manuf.) An iron bar, with the end bent, used in stirring or skimming molten iron in the process of


THERE IS ANOTHER EDITION OF THIS TITLE WITH ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS WHICH MAY VIEWED AT EBOOK [# 28693 ] Transcribed from the 1914 William Heinemann edition by David Price, email _EMAIL_ Book cover "Now will you keep off?" he demanded Tales of the Fish Patrol By Jack London Author of "Burning Daylight," etc.
Decorative graphic London William Heinemann 1914 p. 1WHITE AND YELLOW San Francisco Bay is so large that often its storms are more disastrous to ocean-going craft than is the ocean itself in its violent moments. The waters of the bay contain all manner of fish, wherefore its surface is ploughed by the keels of all manner of fishing boats manned by all manner of fishermen. To protect the fish from this motley floating population many wise laws have been passed, and there is a fish patrol to see that these laws are enforced. Exciting times are the lot of the fish patrol: in its history more than one dead patrolman has marked defeat, and more often dead fishermen across their illegal nets have marked success.
Wildest among the fisher-folk may be accounted the Chinese shrimp-catchers. It is the habit of the shrimp to crawl along the bottom in vast armies till it reaches fresh water, when it turns about and crawls back again to the salt. And where the tide ebbs and flows, the Chinese sink great bag-nets to the bottom, with gaping mouths, into which the shrimp crawls and from which it is transferred to the boiling-pot. This in itself would not be bad, were it not for the small mesh of the nets, so small that the tiniest fishes, little new-hatched things not a quarter of an inch long, cannot pass through. The beautiful beaches of Points Pedro and Pablo, where are the shrimp-catchers' villages, are made fearful by the stench from myriads of decaying fish, and against this wasteful destruction it has ever been the duty of the fish patrol to act.
When I was a youngster of sixteen, a good sloop-sailor and all-round bay-waterman, my sloop, the Reindeer, was chartered by the Fish Commission, and I became for the time being a deputy patrolman. After a deal of work among the Greek fishermen of the Upper Bay and rivers, where knives flashed at the beginning of trouble and men permitted themselves to be made prisoners only after a revolver was thrust in their faces, we hailed with delight an expedition to the Lower Bay against the Chinese shrimp-catchers.
There were six of us, in two boats, and to avoid suspicion we ran down after dark and dropped anchor under a projecting bluff of land known as Point Pinole. As the east paled with the first light of dawn we got under way again, and hauled close on the land breeze as we slanted across the bay toward Point Pedro. The morning mists curled and clung to the water so that we could see nothing, but we busied ourselves driving the chill from our bodies with hot coffee. Also we had to devote ourselves to the miserable task of bailing, for in some incomprehensible way the Reindeer had sprung a generous leak. Half the night had been spent in overhauling the ballast and exploring the seams, but the labor had been without avail. The water still poured in, and perforce we doubled up in the cockpit and tossed it out again.
After coffee, three of the men withdrew to the other boat, a Columbia River salmon boat, leaving three of us in the Reindeer. Then the two craft proceeded in company till the sun showed over the eastern sky-line. Its fiery rays dispelled the clinging vapors, and there, before our eyes, like a picture, lay the shrimp fleet, spread out in a great half-moon, the tips of the crescent fully three miles apart, and each junk moored fast to the buoy of a shrimp-net. But there was no stir, no sign of life.
The situation dawned upon us. While waiting for slack water, in which to lift their heavy nets from the bed of the bay, the Chinese had all gone to sleep below. We were elated, and our plan of battle was swiftly formed.
"Throw each of your two men on to a junk," whispered Le Grant to me from the salmon boat. "And you make fast to a third yourself. We'll do the same, and there's no reason in the world why we shouldn't capture six junks at the least." Then we separated. I put the Reindeer about on the other tack, ran up under the lee of a junk, shivered the mainsail into the wind and lost headway, and forged past the stern of the junk so slowly and so near that one of the patrolmen stepped lightly aboard. Then I kept off, filled the mainsail, and bore away for a second junk.
Up to this time there had been no noise, but from the first junk captured by the salmon boat an uproar now broke forth.
There was shrill Oriental yelling, a pistol shot, and more yelling.
"It's all up. They're warning the others," said George, the remaining patrolman, as he stood beside me in the cockpit.
By this time we were in the thick of the fleet, and the alarm was spreading with incredible swiftness. The decks were beginning to swarm with half-awakened and half-naked Chinese. Cries and yells of warning and anger were flying over the quiet water, and somewhere a conch shell was being blown with great success. To the right of us I saw the captain of a junk chop away his mooring line with an axe and spring to help his crew at the hoisting of the huge, outlandish lug-sail.
But to the left the first heads were popping up from below on another junk, and I rounded up the Reindeer alongside long enough for George to spring aboard.
The whole fleet was now under way. In addition to the sails they had gotten out long sweeps, and the bay was being ploughed in every direction by the fleeing junks. I was now alone in the Reindeer, seeking feverishly to capture a third prize. The first junk I took after was a clean miss, for it trimmed its sheets and shot away surprisingly into the wind. By fully half a point it outpointed the Reindeer, and I began to feel respect for the clumsy craft. Realizing the hopelessness of the pursuit, I filled away, threw out the main-sheet, and drove down before the wind upon the junks to leeward, where I had them at a disadvantage.
The one I had selected wavered indecisively before me, and, as I swung wide to make the boarding gentle, filled suddenly and darted away, the smart Mongols shouting a wild rhythm as they bent to the sweeps. But I had been ready for this. I luffed suddenly. Putting the tiller hard down, and holding it down with my body, I brought the main-sheet in, hand over hand, on the run, so as to retain all possible striking force. The two starboard sweeps of the junk were crumpled up, and then the two boats came together with a crash. The Reindeer's bowsprit, like a monstrous hand, reached over and ripped out the junk's chunky mast and towering sail.
This was met by a curdling yell of rage. A big Chinaman, remarkably evil-looking, with his head swathed in a yellow silk handkerchief and face badly pock-marked, planted a pike-pole on the Reindeer's bow and began to shove the entangled boats apart. Pausing long enough to let go the jib halyards, and just as the Reindeer cleared and began to drift astern, I leaped aboard the junk with a line and made fast. He of the yellow handkerchief and pock-marked face came toward me threateningly, but I put my hand into my hip pocket, and he hesitated. I was unarmed, but the Chinese have learned to be fastidiously careful of American hip pockets, and it was upon this that I depended to keep him and his savage crew at a distance.
I ordered him to drop the anchor at the junk's bow, to which he replied, "No sabbe." The crew responded in like fashion, and though I made my meaning plain by signs, they refused to understand. Realizing the inexpediency of discussing the matter, I went forward myself, overran the line, and let the anchor go.
"Now get aboard, four of you," I said in a loud voice, indicating with my fingers that four of them were to


. Consisting of eulogy or of invective. "Demonstrative eloquence." Blair.
Demonstrative pronoun (Gram.), a pronoun distinctly designating that to which it refers.

 De*mon"stra*tive, n. (Gram.) A demonstrative pronoun; as, "this" and "that" are demonstratives.

 De*mon"stra*tive*ly (?), adv. In a manner fitted to demonstrate; clearly; convincingly; forcibly.

 De*mon"stra*tive*ness, n. The state or quality of being demonstrative.

 Dem"on*stra'tor (?; 277), n. [L.: cf. F. démonstrateur.]
 1. One who demonstrates; one who proves anything with certainty, or establishes it by indubitable evidence.

2. (Anat.) A teacher of practical anatomy.

 De*mon"stra*to*ry (?), a. Tending to demonstrate; demonstrative. Johnson.
 De*mor"age (?; 48), n. Demurrage. [Obs.] Pepys (1663).
 De*mor'al*i*za"tion (?), n. [Cf. F. démoralisation.]
 The act of corrupting or subverting morals. Especially: The act of corrupting or subverting discipline, courage, hope, etc., or the state of being corrupted or subverted in discipline, courage, etc.; as, the demoralization of an army or navy.

 De*mor"al*ize (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Demoralized (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Demoralizing.] [F. démoraliser; pref. dé- (L. disor de) + moraliser.
 See Moralize.] To corrupt or undermine in morals; to destroy or lessen the effect of moral principles on; to render corrupt or untrustworthy in morals, in discipline, in courage, spirit, etc.; to weaken in spirit or efficiency.

 The demoralizing example of profligate power and prosperous crime.

Walsh.
 The vices of the nobility had demoralized the army.

Bancroft.
 Dem'os*then"ic (?), a. [L. Demosthenicus: cf. F. Démosthénique.]
 Pertaining to, or in the style of, Demosthenes, the Grecian orator.

 De*mot"ic (?), a. [Gr. dhmotiko's, fr. dh^mos the people: cf. F. démotique.]
 Of or pertaining to the people; popular; common.

Demotic alphabet or character, a form of writing used in Egypt after six or seven centuries before Christ, for books, deeds, and other such writings; a simplified form of the hieratic character; -- called also epistolographic character, and enchorial character.
 See Enchorial.

 De*mount" (?), v. i. To dismount. [R.]

 Demp"ne (?) v. t. To damn; to condemn. [Obs.] Chaucer.
 { Demp"ster (?; 215), Dem"ster (?), } n. [See Deemster.] 1.
 A deemster.

2. (O. Scots Law) An officer whose duty it was to announce the doom or sentence pronounced by the court.

 De*mulce" (?), v. t. [L. demulcere; de- + mulcere to stroke, soothe.] To soothe; to mollify; to pacify; to soften. [R.] Sir T. Elyot.
 De*mul"cent (?), a. [L. demulcens, p. pr. of demulcere.]
 Softening; mollifying; soothing; assuasive; as, oil is demulcent.

 De*mul"cent, n. (Med.) A substance, usually of a mucilaginous or oily nature, supposed to be capable of soothing an inflamed nervous membrane, or protecting it from irritation. Gum Arabic, glycerin, olive oil, etc., are demulcents.

 De*mul"sion (?), n. The act of soothing; that which soothes. Feltham.
 De*mur" (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Demurred (?); p. pr.
 & vb. n. Demurring.] [OF. demurer, demorer, demourer, to linger, stay, F. demeurer, fr. L. demorari; de- + morari to delay, tarry, stay, mora delay; prob. originally, time for thinking, reflection, and akin to memor mindful. See Memory.] 1. To linger; to stay; to tarry. [Obs.]

 Yet durst not demur nor abide upon the camp.

Nicols.
2. To delay; to pause; to suspend proceedings or judgment in view of a doubt or difficulty; to hesitate; to put off the determination or conclusion of an affair.

 Upon this rub, the English embassadors thought fit to demur.

Hayward.
3. To scruple or object; to take exception; as, I demur to that statement.

4. (Law) To interpose a demurrer. See Demurrer, 2.

 De*mur", v. t. 1. To suspend judgment concerning; to doubt of or hesitate about. [Obs.]

 The latter I demur, for in their looks Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears.

Milton.
2. To cause delay to; to put off. [Obs.]

 He demands a fee, And then demurs me with a vain delay.

Quarles.
 De*mur", n. [OF. demor, demore, stay, delay. See Demur, v. i.] Stop; pause; hesitation as to proceeding; suspense of decision or action; scruple.

 All my demurs but double his attacks; At last he whispers, "Do; and we go snacks."

Pope.
 De*mure" (?), a. [Perh. from OF. de murs (i. e., de bonnes murs of good manners); de of + murs, mours, meurs, mors, F. m&?;urs, fr. L. mores (sing. mos) manners, morals (see Moral); or more prob. fr. OF. meür, F. mûr mature, ripe (see Mature) in a phrase preceded by de, as de mûre conduite of mature conduct.] 1. Of sober or serious mien; composed and decorous in bearing; of modest look; staid; grave.

 Sober, steadfast, and demure.

Milton.
 Nan was very much delighted in her demure way, and that delight showed itself in her face and in her clear bright eyes.

W. Black.
2. Affectedly modest, decorous, or serious; making a show of gravity.

 A cat lay, and looked so demure, as if there had been neither life nor soul in her.

L'Estrange.
 Miss Lizzy, I have no doubt, would be as demure and coquettish, as if ten winters more had gone over her head.

Miss Mitford.
 De*mure", v. i. To look demurely. [Obs.] Shak.
 De*mure"ly, adv. In a demure manner; soberly; gravely; -- now, commonly, with a mere show of gravity or modesty.

 They... looked as demurely as they could; for 't was a hanging matter to laugh unseasonably.

Dryden.
 De*mure"ness (d*mr"ns), n. The state of being demure; gravity; the show of gravity or modesty.

 De*mur"i*ty (d*mr"*t), n. Demureness; also, one who is demure. Sir T. Browne.


being spontaneous, or acting from native feeling, proneness, or temperament, without constraint or external force.

 Romney Leigh, who lives by diagrams, And crosses not the spontaneities Of all his individual, personal life With formal universals.

Mrs. Browning.
2. (Biol.) (a) The tendency to undergo change, characteristic of both animal and vegetable organisms, and not restrained or cheked by the environment. (b) The tendency to activity of muscular tissue, including the voluntary muscles, when in a state of healthful vigor and refreshment.

 Spon*ta"ne*ous (?), a. [L. spontaneus, fr. sponte of free will, voluntarily.] 1. Proceding from natural feeling, temperament, or disposition, or from a native internal proneness, readiness, or tendency, without constraint; as, a spontaneous gift or proportion.

2. Proceeding from, or acting by, internal impulse, energy, or natural law, without external force; as, spontaneous motion; spontaneous growth.

3. Produced without being planted, or without human labor; as, a spontaneous growth of wood.

Spontaneous combustion, combustion produced in a substance by the evolution of heat through the chemical action of its own elements; as, the spontaneous combustion of waste matter saturated with oil. -- Spontaneous generation. (Biol.) See under Generation.

Syn. -- Voluntary; uncompelled; willing. -- Spontaneous, Voluntary.
 What is voluntary is the result of a volition, or act of choice; it therefore implies some degree of consideration, and may be the result of mere reason without excited feeling. What is spontaneous springs wholly from feeling, or a sudden impulse which admits of no reflection; as, a spontaneous burst of applause. Hence, the term is also applied to things inanimate when they are produced without the determinate purpose or care of man. "Abstinence which is but voluntary fasting, and... exercise which is but voluntary labor." J. Seed.
Spontaneous joys, where nature has its play, The soul adopts, and owns their firstborn away.

Goldsmith.
 -- Spon*ta"ne*ous*ly, adv. -- Spon*ta"ne*ous*ness, n. Spon*toon" (?), n. [F. sponton, esponton, it. spontone, spuntone.] (Mil.) A kind of half-pike, or halberd, formerly borne by inferior officers of the British infantry, and used in giving signals to the soldiers.

 Spook (?), n. [D. spook; akin to G. spuk, Sw. spöke, Dan. spögelse a specter, spöge to play, sport, joke, spög a play, joke.] 1. A spirit; a ghost; an apparition; a hobgoblin. [Written also spuke.] Ld. Lytton.
2. (Zoöl.) The chimæra.

 Spool (?), n. [OE. spole, OD. spoele, D. spoel; akin to G. spule, OHG. spuola, Dan. & Sw. spole.]
 A piece of cane or red with a knot at each end, or a hollow cylinder of wood with a ridge at each end, used to wind thread or yarn upon.

Spool stand, an article holding spools of thread, turning on pins, -- used by women at their work.

 Spool, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spooled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Spooling.] To wind on a spool or spools.

 Spool"er (?), n. One who, or that which, spools.

 Spoom (?), v. i. [Probably fr. spum foam. See Spume.] (Naut.)
 To be driven steadily and swiftly, as before a strong wind; to be driven before the wind without any sail, or with only a part of the sails spread; to scud under bare poles. [Written also spoon.]

 When virtue spooms before a prosperous gale, My heaving wishes help to fill the sail.

Dryden.
 Spoon (spn), v. i. (Naut.) See Spoom. [Obs.]

 We might have spooned before the wind as well as they.

Pepys.
 Spoon, n. [OE. spon, AS. spn, a chip; akin to D. spaan, G. span, Dan. spaan, Sw. spån, Icel. spánn, spónn, a chip, a spoon. √170. Cf. Spannew.] 1.
 An implement consisting of a small bowl (usually a shallow oval) with a handle, used especially in preparing or eating food.

 "Therefore behoveth him a full long spoon That shall eat with a fiend," thus heard I say.

Chaucer.
 He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil.

Shak.
2. Anything which resembles a spoon in shape; esp. (Fishing), a spoon bait.

3. Fig.: A simpleton; a spooney. [Slang] Hood.
Spoon bait (Fishing), a lure used in trolling, consisting of a glistening metallic plate shaped like the bowl of a spoon with a fishhook attached. -- Spoon bit, a bit for boring, hollowed or furrowed along one side. -- Spoon net, a net for landing fish. -- Spoon oar. see under Oar.

 Spoon, v. t. To take up in, or as in, a spoon.

 Spoon, v. i. To act with demonstrative or foolish fondness, as one in love. [Colloq.]

 Spoon"bill' (?), n. (Zoöl.) (a) Any one of several species of wading birds of the genera Ajaja and Platalea, and allied genera, in which the long bill is broadly expanded and flattened at the tip.

 The roseate spoonbill of America (Ajaja ajaja), and the European spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) are the best known. The royal spoonbill (P. regia) of Australia is white, with the skin in front of the eyes naked and black. The male in the breeding season has a fine crest.

(b) The shoveler. See Shoveler, 2. (c) The ruddy duck. See under Ruddy. (d) The paddlefish.

 Spoon"-billed' (?), a. (Zoöl.) Having the bill expanded and spatulate at the end.

 Spoon"drift (?), n. [Spoom + drift.] Spray blown from the tops waves during a gale at sea; also, snow driven in the wind at sea; -- written also spindrift.

 Spoon"ey (?), a. Weak-minded; demonstratively fond; as, spooney lovers. [Spelt also spoony.] [Colloq.]

 Spoon"ey, n.; pl. Spooneye (&?;). A weak-minded or silly person; one who is foolishly fond. [Colloq.]

 There is no doubt, whatever, that I was a lackadaisical young spooney.

Dickens.
 Spoon"ful (?), n.; pl. Spoonfuls (&?;). 1.
 The quantity which a spoon contains, or is able to contain; as, a teaspoonful; a tablespoonful.

2. Hence, a small quantity. Arbuthnot.
 Spoon"i*ly (?), adv. In a spoony manner.

 Spoon"-meat' (?), n. Food that is, or must be, taken with a spoon; liquid food. "Diet most upon spoon-meats." Harvey.
 Spoon"wood' (?), n. (Bot.) The mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia).

 Spoon"worm' (?), n. (Zoöl.) A gephyrean worm of the genus Thalassema, having a spoonlike probiscis.

 Spoon"wort' (?), n. (Bot.) Scurvy grass.

 Spoon"y (?), a. & n. Same as Spooney.

 Spoor (?), n. [D. spoor; akin to AS. spor, G. spur, and from the root of E. spur. √171. See Spur.] The track or


THE RESEARCH MAGNIFICENT by H. G. Wells 1915 Contents THE RESEARCH MAGNIFICENT THE PRELUDE ON FEAR AND ARISTOCRACY THE STORY CHAPTER THE FIRST ~~ THE BOY GROWS UP CHAPTER THE SECOND ~~ THE YOUNG MAN ABOUT TOWN CHAPTER THE THIRD ~~ AMANDA CHAPTER THE FOURTH ~~ THE SPIRITED HONEYMOON CHAPTER THE FIFTH ~~ THE ASSIZE OF JEALOUSY CHAPTER THE SIXTH ~~ THE NEW HAROUN AL RASCHID THE RESEARCH MAGNIFICENT THE PRELUDE ON FEAR AND ARISTOCRACY 1 The story of William Porphyry Benham is the story of a man who was led into adventure by an idea. It was an idea that took possession of his imagination quite early in life, it grew with him and changed with him, it interwove at last completely with his being. His story is its story. It was traceably germinating in the schoolboy; it was manifestly present in his mind at the very last moment of his adventurous life. He belonged to that fortunate minority who are independent of daily necessities, so that he was free to go about the world under its direction. It led him far. It led him into situations that bordered upon the fantastic, it made him ridiculous, it came near to making him sublime. And this idea of his was of such a nature that in several aspects he could document it. Its logic forced him to introspection and to the making of a record.

 An idea that can play so large a part in a life must necessarily have something of the complication and protean quality of life itself. It is not to be stated justly in any formula, it is not to be rendered by an epigram. As well one might show a man's skeleton for his portrait. Yet, essentially, Benham's idea was simple. He had an incurable, an almost innate persuasion that he had to live life nobly and thoroughly. His commoner expression for that thorough living is "the aristocratic life." But by "aristocratic" he meant something very different from the quality of a Russian prince, let us say, or an English peer. He meant an intensity, a clearness.... Nobility for him was to get something out of his individual existence, a flame, a jewel, a splendour—it is a thing easier to understand than to say.

 One might hesitate to call this idea "innate," and yet it comes soon into a life when it comes at all. In Benham's case we might trace it back to the Day Nursery at Seagate, we might detect it stirring already at the petticoat stage, in various private struttings and valiant dreamings with a helmet of pasteboard and a white-metal sword. We have most of us been at least as far as that with Benham. And we have died like Horatius, slaying our thousands for our country, or we have perished at the stake or faced the levelled muskets of the firing party—"No, do not bandage my eyes"—because we would not betray the secret path that meant destruction to our city. But with Benham the vein was stronger, and it increased instead of fading out as he grew to manhood. It was less obscured by those earthy acquiescences, those discretions, that saving sense of proportion, which have made most of us so satisfactorily what we are. "Porphyry," his mother had discovered before he was seventeen, "is an excellent boy, a brilliant boy, but, I begin to see, just a little unbalanced." The interest of him, the absurdity of him, the story of him, is that.

 Most of us are—balanced; in spite of occasional reveries we do come to terms with the limitations of life, with those desires and dreams and discretions that, to say the least of it, qualify our nobility, we take refuge in our sense of humour and congratulate ourselves on a certain amiable freedom from priggishness or presumption, but for Benham that easy declension to a humorous acceptance of life as it is did not occur. He found his limitations soon enough; he was perpetually rediscovering them, but out of these interments of the spirit he rose again—remarkably.
 When we others have decided that, to be plain about it, we are not going to lead the noble life at all, that the thing is too ambitious and expensive even to attempt, we have done so because there were other conceptions of existence that were good enough for us, we decided that instead of that glorious impossible being of ourselves, we would figure in our own eyes as jolly fellows, or sly dogs, or sane, sound, capable men or brilliant successes, and so forth—practicable things. For Benham, exceptionally, there were not these practicable things. He blundered, he fell short of himself, he had—as you will be told—some astonishing rebuffs, but they never turned him aside for long. He went by nature for this preposterous idea of nobility as a linnet hatched in a cage will try to fly.

 And when he discovered—and in this he was assisted not a little by his friend at his elbow—when he discovered that Nobility was not the simple thing he had at first supposed it to be, he set himself in a mood only slightly disconcerted to the discovery of Nobility. When it dawned upon him, as it did, that one cannot be noble, so to speak, IN VACUO, he set himself to discover a Noble Society. He began with simple beliefs and fine attitudes and ended in a conscious research. If he could not get through by a stride, then it followed that he must get through by a climb.
 He spent the greater part of his life studying and experimenting in the noble possibilities of man. He never lost his absurd faith in that conceivable splendour. At first it was always just round the corner or just through the wood; to the last it seemed still but a little way beyond the distant mountains.

 For this reason this story has been called THE RESEARCH MAGNIFICENT. It was a real research, it was documented. In the rooms in Westhaven Street that at last were as much as one could call his home, he had accumulated material for—one hesitates to call it a book—let us say it was an analysis of, a guide to the noble life. There after his tragic death came his old friend White, the journalist and novelist, under a promise, and found these papers; he found them to the extent of a crammed bureau, half a score of patent files quite distended and a writing-table drawer-full, and he was greatly exercised to find them. They were, White declares, they are still after much experienced handling, an indigestible aggregation. On this point White is very assured. When Benham thought he was gathering together a book he was dreaming, White says. There is no book in it.... Perhaps too, one might hazard, Benham was dreaming when he thought the noble life a human possibility. Perhaps man, like the ape and the hyaena and the tapeworm and many other of God's necessary but less attractive creatures, is not for such exalted ends. That doubt never seems to have got a lodgment in Benham's skull; though at times one might suppose it the basis of White's thought. You will find in all Benham's story, if only it can be properly told, now subdued, now loud and amazed and distressed, but always traceable, this startled, protesting question


words, animal and plant gods tend to become purely anthropomorphic. When they have become wholly or nearly so, the animals and plants which were at first the deities themselves, still retain a vague and ill-understood connexion with the anthropomorphic gods who have developed out of them. The origin of the relationship between the deity and the animal or plant having been forgotten, various stories are invented to explain it.
These explanations may follow one of two lines according as they are based on the habitual or on the exceptional treatment of the sacred animal or plant. The sacred animal was habitually spared, and only exceptionally slain; and accordingly the myth might be devised to explain either why it was spared or why it was killed.
Devised for the former purpose, the myth would tell of some service rendered to the deity by the animal; devised for the latter purpose, the myth would tell of some injury inflicted by the animal on the god. The reason given for sacrificing goats to Dionysus exemplifies a myth of the latter sort. They were sacrificed to him, it was said, because they injured the vine. Now the goat, as we have seen, was originally an embodiment of the god himself. But when the god had divested himself of his animal character and had become essentially anthropomorphic, the killing of the goat in his worship came to be regarded no longer as a slaying of the deity himself, but as a sacrifice offered to him; and since some reason had to be assigned why the goat in particular should be sacrificed, it was alleged that this was a punishment inflicted on the goat for injuring the vine, the object of the god's especial care.
Thus we have the strange spectacle of a god sacrificed to himself on the ground that he is his own enemy. And as the deity is supposed to partake of the victim offered to him, it follows that, when the victim is the god's old self, the god eats of his own flesh. Hence the goat-god Dionysus is represented as eating raw goat's blood; and the bull-god Dionysus is called "eater of bulls." On the analogy of these instances we may conjecture that wherever a deity is described as the eater of a particular animal, the animal in question was originally nothing but the deity himself. Later on we shall find that some savages propitiate dead bears and whales by offering them portions of their own bodies.
All this, however, does not explain why a deity of vegetation should appear in animal form. But the consideration of that point had better be deferred till we have discussed the character and attributes of Demeter. Meantime it remains to mention that in some places, instead of an animal, a human being was torn in pieces at the rites of Dionysus. This was the practice in Chios and Tenedos; and at Potniae in Boeotia the tradition ran that it had been formerly the custom to sacrifice to the goat-smiting Dionysus a child, for whom a goat was afterwards substituted. At Orchomenus, as we have seen, the human victim was taken from the women of an old royal family. As the slain bull or goat represented the slain god, so, we may suppose, the human victim also represented him.
The legends of the deaths of Pentheus and Lycurgus, two kings who are said to have been torn to pieces, the one by Bacchanals, the other by horses, for their opposition to the rites of Dionysus, may be, as I have already suggested, distorted reminiscences of a custom of sacrificing divine kings in the character of Dionysus and of dispersing the fragments of their broken bodies over the fields for the purpose of fertilising them. It is probably no mere coincidence that Dionysus himself is said to have been torn in pieces at Thebes, the very place where according to legend the same fate befell king Pentheus at the hands of the frenzied votaries of the vine-god.
However, a tradition of human sacrifice may sometimes have been a mere misinterpretation of a sacrificial ritual in which an animal victim was treated as a human being. For example, at Tenedos the new-born calf sacrificed to Dionysus was shod in buskins, and the mother cow was tended like a woman in child-bed. At Rome a shegoat was sacrificed to Vedijovis as if it were a human victim. Yet on the other hand it is equally possible, and perhaps more probable, that these curious rites were themselves mitigations of an older and ruder custom of sacrificing human beings, and that the later pretence of treating the sacrificial victims as if they were human beings was merely part of a pious and merciful fraud, which palmed off on the deity less precious victims than living men and women.
This interpretation is supported by many undoubted cases in which animals have been substituted for human victims.
XLIV. Demeter and Persephone DIONYSUS was not the only Greek deity whose tragic story and ritual appear to reflect the decay and revival of vegetation. In another form and with a different application the old tale reappears in the myth of Demeter and Persephone. Substantially their myth is identical with the Syrian one of Aphrodite (Astarte) and Adonis, the Phrygian one of Cybele and Attis, and the Egyptian one of Isis and Osiris. In the Greek fable, as in its Asiatic and Egyptian counterparts, a goddess mourns the loss of a loved one, who personifies the vegetation, more especially the corn, which dies in winter to revive in spring; only whereas the Oriental imagination figured the loved and lost one as a dead lover or a dead husband lamented by his leman or his wife, Greek fancy embodied the same idea in the tenderer and purer form of a dead daughter bewailed by her sorrowing mother.
The oldest literary document which narrates the myth of Demeter and Persephone is the beautiful Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which critics assign to the seventh century before our era. The object of the poem is to explain the origin of the Eleusinian mysteries, and the complete silence of the poet as to Athens and the Athenians, who in after ages took conspicuous part in the festival, renders it probable that the hymn was composed in the far off time when Eleusis was still a petty independent state, and before the stately procession of the Mysteries had begun to defile, in bright September days, over the low chain of barren rocky hills which divides the flat Eleusinian cornland from the more spacious olive-clad expanse of the Athenian plain. Be that as it may, the hymn reveals to us the conception which the writer entertained of the character and functions of the two goddesses; their natural shapes stand out sharply enough under the thin veil of poetical imagery. The youthful Persephone, so runs the tale, was gathering roses and lilies, crocuses and violets, hyacinths and narcissuses in a lush meadow, when the earth gaped and Pluto, lord of the Dead, issuing from the abyss carried her off on his golden car to be his bride and queen in the gloomy subterranean world. Her sorrowing mother Demeter, with her yellow tresses veiled in a dark mourning mantle, sought her over land and sea, and learning from the Sun her daughter's fate she withdrew in high dudgeon from the gods and took up her abode at Eleusis, where she presented herself to the king's daughters in the guise of an old woman, sitting sadly under the shadow of an olive tree beside the Maiden's Well, to which the damsels had come to draw water in bronze pitchers for their father's house. In her wrath at her bereavement the goddess suffered not the seed to grow in the earth but kept it hidden under ground, and she vowed that never would she set foot on Olympus and never would she let the corn sprout till her lost daughter should be restored to her. Vainly the oxen dragged the ploughs to and fro in the fields; vainly the sower dropped the barley seed in the brown furrows; nothing came up from the parched and crumbling soil. Even the Rarian plain near Eleusis, which was wont to wave with yellow harvests, lay bare and fallow.
Mankind would have perished of hunger and the gods would have been robbed of the sacrifices which were their due, if Zeus in alarm had not commanded Pluto to disgorge


discussed in detail from the standpoint of the question which has been engaging our attention here, in a paper by E. Freundlich entitled "Zur Prüfung der allgemeinen Relativitäts-Theorie" (Die Naturwissenschaften, 1919, No. 35, p. 520: Julius Springer, Berlin).
At all events, a definite decision will be reached during the next few years. If the displacement of spectral lines towards the red by the gravitational potential does not exist, then the general theory of relativity will be untenable. On the other hand, if the cause of the displacement of spectral lines be definitely traced to the gravitational potential, then the study of this displacement will furnish us with important information as to the mass of the heavenly bodies.2 1 Especially since the next planet Venus has an orbit that is almost an exact circle, which makes it more difficult to locate the perihelion with precision. ↑ 2 The displacement of spectral lines towards the red end of the spectrum was definitely established by Adams in 1924, by observations on the dense companion of Sirius, for which the effect is about thirty times greater than for the Sun. R.W.L.—translator ↑ [Contents] APPENDIX IV The Structure of Space According to the General Theory of Relativity [Supplementary to Section XXXII] Since the publication of the first edition of this little book, our knowledge about the structure of space in the large ("cosmological problem") has had an important development, which ought to be mentioned even in a popular presentation of the subject.
My original considerations on the subject were based on two hypotheses: (1) There exists an average density of matter in the whole of space which is everywhere the same and different from zero.
(2) The magnitude ("radius") of space is independent of time.
Both these hypotheses proved to be consistent, according to the general theory of relativity, but only after a hypothetical term was added to the field equations, a term which was not required by the theory as such nor did it seem natural from a theoretical point of view ("cosmological term of the field equations").
Hypothesis (2) appeared unavoidable to me at the time, since I thought that one would get into bottomless speculations if one departed from it.
However, already in the twenties, the Russian mathematician Friedman showed that a different hypothesis was natural from a purely theoretical point of view. He realized that it was possible to preserve hypothesis (1) without introducing the less natural cosmological term into the field equations of gravitation, if one was ready to drop hypothesis (2). Namely, the original field equations admit a solution in which the "world radius" depends on time (expanding space). In that sense one can say, according to Friedman, that the theory demands an expansion of space.
A few years later Hubble showed, by a special investigation of the extra-galactic nebulae ("milky ways"), that the spectral lines emitted showed a red shift which increased regularly with the distance of the nebulae. This can be interpreted in regard to our present knowledge only in the sense of Doppler's principle, as an expansive motion of the system of stars in the large—as required, according to Friedman, by the field equations of gravitation. Hubble's discovery can, therefore, be considered to some extent as a confirmation of the theory.
There does arise, however, a strange difficulty. The interpretation of the galactic line-shift discovered by Hubble as an expansion (which can hardly be doubted from a theoretical point of view), leads to an origin of this expansion which lies "only" about years ago, while physical astronomy makes it appear likely that the development of individual stars and systems of stars takes considerably longer. It is in no way known how this incongruity is to be overcome.
I further want to remark that the theory of expanding space, together with the empirical data of astronomy, permit no decision to be reached about the finite or infinite character of (three-dimensional) space, while the original "static" hypothesis of space yielded the closure (finiteness) of space.
Colophon Availability This version was prepared from the version originally available from Project Gutenberg, which was prepared by Brian Basgen and is also available from the Einstein Reference Archive. The original TeX format was converted to TEI, completely reviewed against the 1921 edition available at The Internet Archive and corrected where necessary. Illustrations where obtained from the source copy to replace the original graphics, and the frontispiece drawing of Einstein by Hermann Struck from the 1921 edition was added.
Metadata Title: Relativity: The Special and General Theory Author: Albert Einstein (1879–1955) Info Translator: Robert William Lawson (1890–1960) Info Illustrator: Hermann Struck (1876–1944) Info Language: English Original publication date: 1916 Keywords: Relativity Project Gutenberg: 5001 QR-code: QR-code of Project Gutenberg URL Revision History 2018-09-26 Started.
External References This Project Gutenberg eBook contains external references. These links may not work for you.
Corrections The following corrections have been applied to the text: Page Source Correction Edit distance N.A.
[Not in source] [in vacuum] 12 N.A.
[Not in source] " 1 N.A.
[Not in source] [British] 10 N.A.
[Not in source] [first world] 14 N.A.
[Not in source] [1920] 7


To cause to wait; to defer; to postpone; — said of a meal; as, to wait dinner. [Colloq.]

 Wait, n. [OF. waite, guaite, gaite, F. guet watch, watching, guard, from OHG. wahta. See Wait, v. i.]

1. The act of waiting; a delay; a halt.

 There is a wait of three hours at the border Mexican town of El Paso.

S. B. Griffin.
2. Ambush. "An enemy in wait." Milton.
3. One who watches; a watchman. [Obs.]

4. pl. Hautboys, or oboes, played by town musicians; not used in the singular. [Obs.] Halliwell.
5. pl. Musicians who sing or play at night or in the early morning, especially at Christmas time; serenaders; musical watchmen.
 [Written formerly wayghtes.]

 Hark! are the waits abroad?

Beau & Fl.
 The sound of the waits, rude as may be their minstrelsy, breaks upon the mild watches of a winter night with the effect of perfect harmony.

W. Irving.
To lay wait, to prepare an ambuscade. — To lie in wait. See under 4th Lie.

 Wait"er (?), n. 1. One who, or that which, waits; an attendant; a servant in attendance, esp. at table.

 The waiters stand in ranks; the yeomen cry, "Make room," as if a duke were passing by.

Swift.
2. A vessel or tray on which something is carried, as dishes, etc.; a salver.

Coast waiter. See under Coast, n. Wait"ing, a. & n. from Wait, v. In waiting, in attendance; as, lords in waiting. [Eng.] — Waiting gentlewoman, a woman who waits upon a person of rank. — Waiting maid, Waiting woman, a maid or woman who waits upon another as a personal servant.

 Wait"ing*ly, adv. By waiting.

 Wait"ress (?), n. A female waiter or attendant; a waiting maid or waiting woman.

 Waive (?), n. [See Waive, v. t. ] 1. A waif; a castaway. [Obs.] Donne.
2. (O. Eng. Law) A woman put out of the protection of the law. See Waive, v. t., 3 (b), and the Note.

 Waive, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Waived (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Waiving.] [OE. waiven, weiven, to set aside, remove, OF. weyver, quesver, to waive, of Scand. origin; cf.
 Icel. veifa to wave, to vibrate, akin to Skr. vip to tremble. Cf. Vibrate, Waif.] [Written also wave.]

1. To relinquish; to give up claim to; not to insist on or claim; to refuse; to forego.

 He waiveth milk, and flesh, and all.

Chaucer.
 We absolutely do renounce or waive our own opinions, absolutely yielding to the direction of others.

Barrow.
2. To throw away; to cast off; to reject; to desert.

3. (Law) (a) To throw away; to relinquish voluntarily, as a right which one may enforce if he chooses. (b) (O. Eng. Law) To desert; to abandon. Burrill.
 The term was applied to a woman, in the same sense as outlaw to a man. A woman could not be outlawed, in the proper sense of the word, because, according to Bracton, she was never in law, that is, in a frankpledge or decennary; but she might be waived, and held as abandoned. Burrill.
 Waive, v. i. To turn aside; to recede. [Obs.]

 To waive from the word of Solomon.

Chaucer.
 Waiv"er (?), n. (Law) The act of waiving, or not insisting on, some right, claim, or privilege.

 Waiv"ure (?), n. See Waiver. [R.]

 Wai"wode (?), n. See Waywode.

 Wake (?), n. [Originally, an open space of water s&?;rrounded by ice, and then, the passage cut through ice for a vessel, probably of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. vök a hole, opening in ice, Sw. vak, Dan. vaage, perhaps akin to E. humid.] The track left by a vessel in the water; by extension, any track; as, the wake of an army.

 This effect followed immediately in the wake of his earliest exertions.

De Quincey.
 Several humbler persons... formed quite a procession in the dusty wake of his chariot wheels.

Thackeray.
 Wake, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Waked (?) or Woke (&?;); p. pr. & vb. n. Waking.] [AS. wacan, wacian; akin to OFries. waka, OS. wak&?;n, D. waken, G. wachen, OHG. wahh&?;n, Icel. vaka, Sw. vaken, Dan. vaage, Goth. wakan, v. i., uswakjan, v. t., Skr. vjay to rouse, to impel. &?;&?;&?;&?;. Cf. Vigil, Wait, v. i., Watch, v. i.]

1. To be or to continue awake; to watch; not to sleep.

 The father waketh for the daughter.

Ecclus. xlii. 9.
 Though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps.

Milton.
 I can not think any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it.

Locke.
2. To sit up late festive purposes; to hold a night revel.

 The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, Keeps wassail, and the swaggering upspring reels.

Shak.
3. To be excited or roused from sleep; to awake; to be awakened; to cease to sleep; — often with up.

 He infallibly woke up at the sound of the concluding doxology.

G. Eliot.
4. To be exited or roused up; to be stirred up from a dormant, torpid, or inactive state; to be active.

 Gentle airs due at their hour To fan the earth now waked.

Milton.
 Then wake, my soul, to high desires.

Keble.
 Wake (?), v. t. 1. To rouse from sleep; to awake.

 The angel... came again and waked me.

Zech. iv. 1.
2. To put in motion or action; to arouse; to excite. "I shall waken all this company." Chaucer.
 Lest fierce remembrance wake my sudden rage.

Milton.
 Even Richard's crusade woke little interest in his island realm.

J. R. Green.
3. To bring to life again, as if from the sleep of death; to reanimate; to revive.

 To second life Waked in the renovation of the just.

Milton.
4. To watch, or sit up with, at night, as a dead body.

 Wake, n. 1. The act of waking, or being awaked; also, the state of being awake. [Obs. or Poetic] Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep.

Shak.
 Singing her flatteries to my morning wake.

Dryden.
2. The state of forbearing sleep, especially for solemn or festive purposes; a vigil.


sweep.

 And now at last you came to swoop it all.

Dryden.
 The grazing ox which swoops it [the medicinal herb] in with the common grass.

Glanvill.
 Swoop, v. i. 1. To descend with closed wings from a height upon prey, as a hawk; to stoop.

2. To pass with pomp; to sweep. [Obs.] Drayton.
 Swoop, n. A falling on and seizing, as the prey of a rapacious bird; the act of swooping.

 The eagle fell,... and carried away a whole litter of cubs at a swoop.

L'Estrange.
 Swoop"stake' (?), n. See Sweepstake. [Obs.]

 Swoop"stake', adv. Altogether; indiscriminately. [R.] Shak.
 Swop (?), v. & n. Same as Swap. Dryden.
 Sword (srd), n. [OE. swerd, AS. sweord; akin to OFries. swerd, swird, D. zwaard, OS. swerd, OHG. swert, G. schwert, Icel. sverð, Sw. svärd, Dan. sværd; of uncertain origin.] 1. An offensive weapon, having a long and usually sharp-pointed blade with a cutting edge or edges. It is the general term, including the small sword, rapier, saber, scimiter, and many other varieties.

2. Hence, the emblem of judicial vengeance or punishment, or of authority and power.

 He [the ruler] beareth not the sword in vain.

Rom. xiii. 4.
 She quits the balance, and resigns the sword.

Dryden.
3. Destruction by the sword, or in battle; war; dissension.

 I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Matt. x. 34.
4. The military power of a country.

 He hath no more authority over the sword than over the law.

Milton.
5. (Weaving) One of the end bars by which the lay of a hand loom is suspended.

Sword arm, the right arm. -- Sword bayonet, a bayonet shaped somewhat like a sword, and which can be used as a sword. -- Sword bearer, one who carries his master's sword; an officer in London who carries a sword before the lord mayor when he goes abroad. -- Sword belt, a belt by which a sword is suspended, and borne at the side. -- Sword blade, the blade, or cutting part, of a sword. -- Sword cane, a cane which conceals the blade of a sword or dagger, as in a sheath. -- Sword dance. (a) A dance in which swords are brandished and clashed together by the male dancers. Sir W. Scott.
(b) A dance performed over swords laid on the ground, but without touching them. -- Sword fight, fencing; a combat or trial of skill with swords; swordplay. -- Sword grass. (Bot.) See Gladen.
 -- Sword knot, a ribbon tied to the hilt of a sword. -- Sword law, government by the sword, or by force; violence. Milton. -- Sword lily. (Bot.) See Gladiolus. -- Sword mat (Naut.), a mat closely woven of yarns; -- so called from a wooden implement used in its manufacture. -- Sword shrimp (Zoöl.), a European shrimp (Pasiphæa sivado) having a very thin, compressed body.
 -- Sword stick, a sword cane. -- To measure swords with one.
 See under Measure, v. t. -- To put to the sword. See under Put.

 Sword"bill' (?), n. (Zoöl.) A humming bird (Docimastes ensiferus) having a very long, slender bill, exceeding the length of the body of the bird.

 Sword"ed, a. [Cf. AS. geswurdod.] Girded with a sword. Milton.
 Sword"er (?), n. One who uses, or fights with, a sword; a swordsman; a soldier; a cutthroat. [Obs.] Shak.
 Sword"fish' (?), n. 1. (Zoöl.) (a) A very large oceanic fish (Xiphias gladius), the only representative of the family Xiphiidæ. It is highly valued as a food fish. The bones of the upper jaw are consolidated, and form a long, rigid, swordlike beak; the dorsal fin is high and without distinct spines; the ventral fins are absent. The adult is destitute of teeth. It becomes sixteen feet or more long. (b) The gar pike. (c) The cutlass fish.

2. (Astron.) A southern constellation. See Dorado, 1.

Swordfish sucker (Zoöl.), a remora (Remora brachyptera) which attaches itself to the swordfish.

 Sword"ick (?), n. (Zoöl.) The spotted gunnel (Murænoides gunnellus). [Prov. Eng.]

 Sword"ing (?), n. Slashing with a sword. Tennyson.
 Sword"less (?), a. Destitute of a sword.

 Sword"man (?), n.; pl. Swordmen (&?;). A swordsman. "Sinewy swordmen." Shak.
 Sword"play' (?), n. Fencing; a sword fight.

 Sword"play'er (?), n. A fencer; a gladiator; one who exhibits his skill in the use of the sword.

 Sword"-shaped' (?), a. (Bot.) Shaped like a sword; ensiform, as the long, flat leaves of the Iris, cattail, and the like.

 Swords"man (?), n.; pl. Swordsmen (&?;). 1.
 A soldier; a fighting man.

2. One skilled of a use of the sword; a professor of the science of fencing; a fencer.

 Swords"man*ship, n. The state of being a swordsman; skill in the use of the sword. Cowper.
 Sword"tail' (?), n. (Zoöl.) (a) The limulus. (b) Any hemipterous insect of the genus Uroxiphus, found upon forest trees.

 Swore (?), imp. of Swear.

 Sworn (?), p. p. of Swear.

Sworn brothers, originally, companions in arms who took an oath to share together good and bad fortune; hence, faithful friends. -- Sworn enemies, determined or irreconcilable enemies. -- Sworn friends, close friends.

 Swough (?), n. [See Swoon.] 1. A sound; a groan; a moan; a sough. [Obs.]

 He sigheth with full many a sorry swough.

Chaucer.
2. A swoon. [Obs.] Chaucer.
 Swound (?), v. & n. See Swoon, v. & n. [Prov. Eng.
 or Archaic] Shak. Dryden.
 The landlord stirred As one awaking from a swound.

Longfellow.
 'Swounds (?), interj. [Cf. Zounds.] An exclamation contracted from God's wounds; -- used as an oath. [Obs. or Archaic] Shak.
 Swown (?), v. & n. Swoon. [Obs.] Chaucer.
 Swum (?), imp. & p. p. of Swim.

 Swung (?), imp. & p. p. of Swing.

 Swythe (?), adv. Quickly. See Swithe. [Obs.]

 Sy (?), obs. imp. of See. Saw. Chaucer.
 Syb (?), a. See Sib. [Obs. or Scot.]

 Syb"a*rite (?), n. [L. Sybarita, Gr. &?;, fr. &?;, a city in Italy, noted for the effeminacy and voluptuousness of its inhabitants; cf. F. Sybarite.] A person devoted to luxury and pleasure; a voluptuary.

 { Syb'a*rit"ic (?), Syb'a*rit"ic*al (?), } a. [L. Sybariticus, Gr. &?;.]


The Diary of a Goose Girl, by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin Transcribed from the 1902 Gay and Bird edition by David Price, email _EMAIL_ Book cover THE DIARY OF A GOOSE GIRL by KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN with illustrations by CLAUDE A. SHEPPERSON GAY AND BIRD 22 bedford street, strand LONDON 1902 I looked about me with what Stevenson calls a 'fine dizzy, muddle-headed job' TO THE HENS, DUCKS, AND GEESE WHO SO KINDLY GAVE ME SITTINGS FOR THESE SKETCHES THE BOOK IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED CHAPTER I. Thornycroft House Thornycroft Farm, near Barbury Green, July 1, 190-.
Picture of woman and goose In alluding to myself as a Goose Girl, I am using only the most modest of my titles; for I am also a poultry-maid, a tender of Belgian hares and rabbits, and a shepherdess; but I particularly fancy the rôle of Goose Girl, because it recalls the German fairy tales of my early youth, when I always yearned, but never hoped, to be precisely what I now am.
As I was jolting along these charming Sussex roads the other day, a fat buff pony and a tippy cart being my manner of progression, I chanced upon the village of Barbury Green.
One glance was enough for any woman, who, having eyes to see, could see with them; but I made assurance doubly sure by driving about a little, struggling to conceal my new-born passion from the stable-boy who was my escort. Then, it being high noon of a cloudless day, I descended from the trap and said to the astonished yokel: "You may go back to the Hydropathic; I am spending a month or two here. Wait a moment—I'll send a message, please!" I then scribbled a word or two to those having me in custody.
"I am very tired of people," the note ran, "and want to rest myself by living a while with things. Address me (if you must) at Barbury Green post-office, or at all events send me a box of simple clothing there—nothing but shirts and skirts, please. I cannot forget that I am only twenty miles from Oxenbridge (though it might be one hundred and twenty, which is the reason I adore it), but I rely upon you to keep an honourable distance yourselves, and not to divulge my place of retreat to others, especially to—you know whom! Do not pursue me. I will never be taken alive!" Having cut, thus, the cable that bound me to civilisation, and having seen the buff pony and the dazed yokel disappear in a cloud of dust, I looked about me with what Stevenson calls a "fine, dizzy, muddle-headed joy," the joy of a successful rebel or a liberated serf. Plenty of money in my purse—that was unromantic, of course, but it simplified matters—and nine hours of daylight remaining in which to find a lodging.
Life converges there, just at the public duck-pond The village is one of the oldest, and I am sure it must be one of the quaintest, in England. It is too small to be printed on the map (an honour that has spoiled more than one Arcadia), so pray do not look there, but just believe in it, and some day you may be rewarded by driving into it by chance, as I did, and feel the same Columbus thrill running, like an electric current, through your veins. I withhold specific geographical information in order that you may not miss that Columbus thrill, which comes too seldom in a world of railroads.
The Green is in the very centre of Barbury village, and all civic, political, family, and social life converges there, just at the public duck-pond—a wee, sleepy lake with a slope of grass-covered stones by which the ducks descend for their swim.
The houses are set about the Green like those in a toy village. They are of old brick, with crumpled, up-and-down roofs of deep-toned red, and tufts of stonecrop growing from the eaves. Diamond-paned windows, half open, admit the sweet summer air; and as for the gardens in front, it would seem as if the inhabitants had nothing to do but work in them, there is such a riotous profusion of colour and bloom. To add to the effect, there are always pots of flowers hanging from the trees, blue flax and yellow myrtle; and cages of Java sparrows and canaries singing joyously, as well they may in such a paradise.
The houses are set about the Green The shops are idyllic, too, as if Nature had seized even the man of trade and made him subservient to her designs. The general draper's, where I fitted myself out for a day or two quite easily, is set back in a tangle of poppies and sweet peas, Madonna lilies and Canterbury bells. The shop itself has a gay awning, and what do you think the draper has suspended from it, just as a picturesque suggestion to the passer-by?
Suggestion I call it, because I should blush to use the word advertisement in describing anything so dainty and decorative. Well, then, garlands of shoes, if you please! Baby bootlets of bronze; tiny ankle-ties in yellow, blue, and scarlet kid; glossy patent-leather pumps shining in the sun, with festoons of slippers at the corners, flowery slippers in imitation Berlin wool-work. If you make this picture in your mind's-eye, just add a window above the awning, and over the fringe of marigolds in the window-box put the draper's wife dancing a rosy-cheeked baby. Alas! my words are only black and white, I fear, and this picture needs a palette drenched in primary colours.
Along the street, a short distance, is the old watchmaker's. Set in the hedge at the gate is a glass case with Multum in Parvo painted on the woodwork.
Within, a little stand of trinkets revolves slowly; as slowly, I imagine, as the current of business in that quiet street.
The house stands a trifle back and is covered thickly with ivy, while over the entrance-door of the shop is a great round clock set in a green frame of clustering vine. The hands pointed to one when I passed the watchmaker's garden with its thicket of fragrant lavender and its murmuring bees; so I went in to the sign of the "Strong i' the Arm" for some cold luncheon, determining to patronise "The Running Footman" at the very next opportunity. Neither of these inns is starred by Baedeker, and this fact adds the last touch of enchantment to the picture.
The landlady at the "Strong i' the Arm" stabbed me in the heart by telling me that there were no apartments to let in the village, and that she had no private sitting-room in the inn; but she speedily healed the wound by saying that I might be accommodated at one of the farm-houses in the vicinity. Did I object to a farm-'ouse?
Then she could cheerfully recommend the Evan's farm, only 'alf a mile away. She 'ad understood from Miss Phœbe Evan, who sold her poultry, that they would take one lady lodger if she didn't wish much waiting upon.
In my present mood I was in search of the strenuous life, and eager to wait, rather than to be waited upon; so I walked along the edge of the Green, wishing that some mentally unbalanced householder would take a sudden fancy to me and ask me to come in and lodge awhile. I suppose these families live under their roofs of peach-blow tiles, in the midst of their blooming gardens, for a guinea a week or thereabouts; yet if they "undertook" me (to use their own phrase), the bill for my humble meals and bed would be at least double that.
I don't know that I blame them; one should have proper compensation for admitting a world-stained lodger into such an Eden.
When I was searching for rooms a week ago, I chanced upon a pretty cottage where the woman had sometimes let apartments. She showed me the premises and asked me if I would mind taking my meals in her own dining-room, where I could be served privately at certain hours: and, since she had but the one sitting-room, would I allow her to go on using it occasionally? also, if I


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 Burgh"bote' (&?;), n. [Burgh + bote.] (Old Law) A contribution toward the building or repairing of castles or walls for the defense of a city or town.

 Burgh"brech' (&?;), n. [Burgh + F. brèche, equiv. to E. breach.] (AS. Law) The offense of violating the pledge given by every inhabitant of a tithing to keep the peace; breach of the peace. Burrill.
 Burgh"er (&?;), n. [From burgh; akin to D. burger, G. bürger, Dan. borger, Sw. borgare. See Burgh.]
 1. A freeman of a burgh or borough, entitled to enjoy the privileges of the place; any inhabitant of a borough.

2. (Eccl. Hist.) A member of that party, among the Scotch seceders, which asserted the lawfulness of the burgess oath (in which burgesses profess "the true religion professed within the realm"), the opposite party being called antiburghers.

 These parties arose among the Presbyterians of Scotland, in 1747, and in 1820 reunited under the name of the "United Associate Synod of the Secession Church."

 Burgh"er*mas'ter (&?;), n. See Burgomaster.

 Burgh"er*ship (&?;), n. The state or privileges of a burgher.

 Burgh"mas'ter (&?;), n. 1. A burgomaster.

2. (Mining) An officer who directs and lays out the meres or boundaries for the workmen; -- called also bailiff, and barmaster.
 [Eng.]

 Burgh"mote' (&?;), n. (AS. Law) [Burgh + mote meeting.] A court or meeting of a burgh or borough; a borough court held three times yearly.

 Bur"glar (&?;), n. [OE. burg town, F. bourg, fr.
 LL. burgus (of German origin) + OF. lere thief, fr. L. latro.
 See Borough, and Larceny.] (Law) One guilty of the crime of burglary.

Burglar alarm, a device for giving alarm if a door or window is opened from without.

 Bur"glar*er (&?;), n. A burglar. [Obs.]

 Bur*gla"ri*ous (&?;), a. Pertaining to burglary; constituting the crime of burglary.

 To come down a chimney is held a burglarious entry. Blackstone.
 Bur*gla"ri*ous*ly, adv. With an intent to commit burglary; in the manner of a burglar. Blackstone.
 Bur"gla*ry (&?;), n.; pl. Burglaries (&?;).
 [Fr. Burglar; cf. LL. burglaria.] (Law) Breaking and entering the dwelling house of another, in the nighttime, with intent to commit a felony therein, whether the felonious purpose be accomplished or not. Wharton. Burrill.
 By statute law in some of the United States, burglary includes the breaking with felonious intent into a house by day as well as by night, and into other buildings than dwelling houses. Various degrees of the crime are established.

 Bur"go*mas'ter (&?;), n. [D. burgemeester; burg borough + meester master; akin to G. burgemeister, bürgermeister.
 See 1st Borough, and Master.] 1. A chief magistrate of a municipal town in Holland, Flanders, and Germany, corresponding to mayor in England and the United States; a burghmaster.

2. (Zoöl.) An aquatic bird, the glaucous gull (Larus glaucus), common in arctic regions.

 Bur"go*net (&?;), n. [F. bouruignotte, because the Burgundians, F. Bouruignons, first used it.] A kind of helmet.
 [Written also burganet.] Shak.
 Bur"goo (&?;), n. [Prov. E. burgood yeast, perh. fr. W. burym yeast + cawl cabbage, gruel.] A kind of oatmeal pudding, or thick gruel, used by seamen. [Written also burgout.]

 Bur"grass' (&?;), n. (Bot.) Grass of the genus Cenchrus, growing in sand, and having burs for fruit.

 Bur"grave (&?;), n. [F.] See Burggrave.

 Bur"gun*dy (&?;), n. 1. An old province of France (in the eastern central part).

2. A richly flavored wine, mostly red, made in Burgundy, France.

Burgundy pitch, a resinous substance prepared from the exudation of the Norway spruce (Abies excelsa) by melting in hot water and straining through cloth. The genuine Burgundy pitch, supposed to have been first prepared in Burgundy, is rare, but there are many imitations. It has a yellowish brown color, is translucent and hard, but viscous. It is used in medicinal plasters.

 Burh (&?;), n. See Burg. [Obs.]

 { Bur"hel, Burr"hel } (&?;), n. (Zoöl.) The wild Himalayan, or blue, sheep (Ovis burrhel).

 Bur"i*al (&?;), n. [OE. buriel, buriels, grave, tomb, AS. byrgels, fr. byrgan to bury, and akin to OS. burgisli sepulcher.] 1. A grave; a tomb; a place of sepulture. [Obs.]

 The erthe schook, and stoones weren cloven, and biriels weren opened. Wycliff [Matt. xxvii. 51, 52].
2. The act of burying; depositing a dead body in the earth, in a tomb or vault, or in the water, usually with attendant ceremonies; sepulture; interment. "To give a public burial." Shak.
 Now to glorious burial slowly borne. Tennyson.
Burial case, a form of coffin, usually of iron, made to close air-tight, for the preservation of a dead body. -- Burial ground, a piece of ground selected and set apart for a place of burials, and consecrated to such use by religious ceremonies. -- Burial place, any place where burials are made. -- Burial service. (a) The religious service performed at the interment of the dead; a funeral service. (b) That portion of a liturgy which is read at an interment; as, the English burial service.

Syn. -- Sepulture; interment; inhumation.

 Bur"i*er (&?;), n. One who, or that which, buries.

 Till the buriers have buried it. Ezek. xxxix. 15.
 And darkness be the burier of the dead. Shak.
 Bu"rin (&?;), n. [F. burin, cf. It. burino, bulino; prob. from OHG. bora borer, born to bore, G. bohren.
 See 1st Bore.] 1. The cutting tool of an engraver on metal, used in line engraving. It is made of tempered steel, one end being ground off obliquely so as to produce a sharp point, and the other end inserted in a handle; a graver; also, the similarly shaped tool used by workers in marble.

2. The manner or style of execution of an engraver; as, a soft burin; a brilliant burin.

 Bu"rin*ist, n. One who works with the burin. For. Quart. Rev.
 Bu"ri*on (&?;), n. (Zoöl.) The red-breasted house sparrow of California (Carpodacus frontalis); -- called also crimson-fronted