Socket-money, subs. phr. (old).—'Demanded and spent upon Marriage' (B. E.); 2 (Grose) = 'money paid by a married man caught in an intrigue'; 3 (old) = 'a whore's fee' (Grose). Hence socketer = a blackmailer.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 127. We'll take her, be she wife or whore; But we must likewise come upon ye, By way of costs, for socket-money.
Sod, subs. (common).—1. A
sodomist; hence (2) a violent
term of abuse.
Sodger. See Soger.
Sodom, subs. (Oxford Univ.).—1.
Wadham College.
2. (old).—London: cf. Babylon.
Soft, subs. (thieves').—Bank notes
(Grose): generic: also soft-flimsy.
To do soft = to utter
counterfeit notes.
Adj. (old).—(1) Foolish; easy-going (B. E. and Bee); and (2) choice, exquisite (see quot. 1596): originally effeminate. As subs. (softy, or soft-horn) = a simpleton; as adj. (softish, or soft-headed) = weak-minded, silly (Bailey).
d.1536. Tyndale, Works, ii. 258. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 428. An Emperor who gave in to the Pope is called a soft man.]
1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, v. 2, 110. Laertes . . . an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of very soft society and great showing.
1621. Burton, Anat. Melan., 209. What cannot such scoffers do, especially if they find a soft creature on whom they may work. Ibid., 149. He made . . . soft fellows stark noddies.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 13. You are young, and seem a little soft.
1828. Bee, Liv. Pict. Lond., 45. If you appear tolerably soft, and will 'stand it,' he perhaps refuses these also, after having rung the changes once more. This is called a double do.
1859. Eliot, Adam Bede, ix. If you've got a soft to drive you, he'll soon turn over into the ditch.
1863. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers, xv. Nancy . . . were but a softy after all.
1864. Braddon, Aurora Floyd, xvii. 'I've mashed the tea for 'ee,' said the softy.
1888. Mrs. H. Ward, Robert Elsmere, iii. He is a kind of softie—all alive on one side of his brain, and a noodle on the other.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 73. Called the beak 'a balmy kipper,' dubbed him 'soft about the shell.'
1902. Lynch, High Stakes, xxxii. I . . . heard them calling me softy, and other . . . names, before I had fairly turned my back on them.
Phrases. Soft-hearted = yielding, piteous, tender; 'Hard (arse) or soft?' = 'Third class or first?'; soft food = pap; soft = hash; soft is your horn = 'You make a mistake' (Bee); a soft thing = (1) an easy or pleasant task, and (2) a facile simpleton; a bit of hard for a bit of soft (venery) = copulation; soft down on = in love with. See Hard-shell; Hard-tack; Sawder (adding quot. 1844 infra); Snap; Soap; Spots; Tack.
1844. Haliburton, Attache, 19. I don't like to be left alone with a gall; it's plaguy apt to set me a soft-sawderin', and a courtin'. Ibid. (1855), Human Nature, 311. Sam Slick said he trusted to soft sawder to get his wooden clocks into a house.
Soft-ball, subs. phr. (Royal Military
Academy).—Tennis.
