Souper, subs. (common).—1. A cadger for soup-tickets.
2. (thieves').—A super (q.v.).
Sour, subs. (thieves').—1. Base
silver money. To plant the
sour = to 'utter' snide (q.v.)
silver; whence sour-planter.
See Shover.
1883. Greenwood, Tag, Rag, and Co. The individual mentioned . . . was a smasher, or in other words, a dealer in . . . sours. Ibid., 34. It is not in paltry pewter sours with which the young woman has dealings, but in dandys which . . . mean imitation gold coin.
2. (American).—An acid punch: thus whiskey-sour = whiskey and lemon.
Adj. (B. E.).—'Crabbed, surly, ill-conditioned.'
To sour on, verb. phr. (American).—To treat unkindly.
Sour-ale. To mend like sour-ale
in summer, verb. phr.
(colloquial).—To get worse.
Sour-cudgel, subs. phr. (old).—A
severe beating (Withal, 1608).
Souse-crown, subs. phr. (B. E.).—A
fool: see Buffle.
Southerly buster, subs. phr.
(Australian).—A sudden gale
from the southward: cf. Brickfielder.
1863. F. Fowler [Athenæum, 21 Feb., 264, 1.] The brickfielder is the cold wind or southerly buster which . . . carries a thick cloud of dust across the city.
1878. Australian, i. 587. SOUTHERLY BUSTERS by 'Ironbark' [Title].
1883. Times, 27 Sep., 9. The port is exposed to sudden gales known as southerly busters.
1885. Finch-Hatton, Advance Australia. A southerly buster sweeps up from the ice-fields of the Southern Sea.
1889. Zillmann, Australian Life, 40. It is no mere pastime to be caught in a southerly buster.
1893. The Australasian, 12 Aug., 302, 1. You should see him with Commodore Jack out in the teeth of 'the hard glad weather,' when a southerly buster sweeps up the harbour.
1806. H. A. Hunt, Essay on SOUTHERLEY BUSTERS [Title].
South Jeopardy, subs. phr.
(Grose).—'Terrors of insolvency.
Oxf. Univ. Cant.'
Sov, subs. (common).—A sovereign;
20/-: see Rhino.
Sow, subs. (old).—1. A fat woman;
hence (2) = a general term of
abuse: cf. bitch. Sow-child
= a girl baby (B. E. and Grose);
sow's baby = a sucking pig.
1702. Ward, Works, i. 5, 27. She looks . . . like a sow in petticoats.
1725. Bailey, Erasmus, 'Epithal. Petrus Ægidius.' The wife [has been called] sow, Fool, Dirty Drab.
Phrases and Proverbs. To grease a fat sow on the arse = to be insensible to kindness; to come sailing in a sow's ear (Ray); to get the right (or wrong) sow by the ear = to make a right (or wrong) conclusion (B. E. and Grose); 'You cannot make a silk-purse of a sow's ear = a retort on the impossible' (Ray): cf. 'You cannot make a horn of a pig's tail' and 'An ass's tail will not make a sieve.' See David's sow; Hempseed; Saddle; Wild Oats.
1596. Jonson, Ev. Man in Humour, ii. 1. He has the wrong sow by the ear, i' faith; and claps his dish at the wrong man's door.
1605. Chapman and Jonson, Eastward Ho, ii. 1. You have the sow by the right ear, sir.
1664. Butler, Hudibras, II. iii. 580. You have a wrong sow by the ear.
