Spoonage, subs. (old).—Liquid food; pap (q.v.).
1586. Warner, Albions England, II. x. And suck she might a teat for teeth, And spoonage too did faile.
Spoony drunk, adj. phr. (common).—Sentimentally
drunk: see
Screwed.
Spooran, subs. (venery).—The
pubic hair: see Fleece.
Spoops (or Spoopsie), subs.
(American).—A simpleton: see
Buffle. Spoopy = silly, foolish.
Sport, subs. (old).—1. Copulation:
also the sport of Venus (or
venereal sport). Hence as
verb. = to wanton; sportive
(or sportful) = lecherous;
sportswoman (or sporting-piece)
= a harlot; sportsman
= a muttonmonger (q.v.);
sportsman's gap = the female
pudendum; sportsman's toast
= 'pointer and stubble'; &c.
1570. Marr. Wit and Science [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), ii. 326]. What though I be too young to show her sport in bed, Yet there are many in this land that at my years do wed.
1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1, 263. Let Kate be chaste, and Dian sportful. Ibid. (1597), Richard III., i. 1. I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks. Ibid. (1598), Sonnets, cxxi. Why should others' false adulterate eyes Give salutation to my sportive blood? Ibid. (1602,) Othello, ii. 1, 230. When the blood is made dull with the act of sport. Ibid., ii. 3, 17. He hath not yet made wanton the night with her, and she is sport for Jove. Ibid. (1603), Measure for Meas., iii. 2. Ere he would have hanged a man for the getting a hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing a thousand: he had some feeling of the sport.
c. 1600. Jonson, Frag. Petron. Arbiter Translated. Doing, a filthy pleasure is, and short; And done, we straight repent us of the sport.
1621. Burton, Anat. Melan. III. iii. i. 2. When . . . he did not play the man as he should do, she fell in league with a good fellow, and whilst he sat up late at his study . . . she . . . continued at her sport.
1629. Massinger, Picture, iii. 6. This ring was Julietta's, a fine piece, But very good at the sport.
1673. Cotton, Scoffer Scofft [1770], 239. He comes i' th' middle of their sport . . . Took the poor Lovers in the Manner.
1700. Dryden, Wife of Bath's Tale. The widow's wish was oftentimes to wed; The wanton maids were all for sport a-bed.
d. 1704. Browne, Works, ii. 204. An old fornicatrix, who can part with her money as freely at one sport as she got it at another.
c. 1709. Ward, T— B's Last Letter. If . . . you have not the gift of continence . . . match your cock with the next fair sportswoman you meet. Ibid. (d. 1731), Terræfilius, v. 25. Good enough to solemnize her venereal sports upon a tavern chair. Ibid., 27. She is of the true colour for the sport of Venus. Ibid., Infernal Vision, III. Or Money gained admission to her Beard . . . What she first thought on't, How she lik'd the sport? Whether it pleas'd her well, or if it hurt?
1740. Richardson, Pamela, ii. 35. A poor sporting-piece for the great.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 4. In England, if you trust report, Whether in country, town or court, The parsons daughters make best sport.
c. 1796. Morris, The Plenipotentiary. As he knew in our state that the women have weight, He chose one well-hung for the sport, sirs.
2. (turf, &c.).—A professional sportsman: a pugilist, bookmaker, jockey, &c.: also sporting-man. Whence sporting-house = a public-house frequented by sportsmen.
1877. New York Tribune, April. I know two or three thousand sports floating now on the sea of adversity.
1896. Lillard, Poker Stories, 50. Those were the days, my boy . . . every sport with stuff in his pockets, and lots of good clothes.
2. (colloquial).—Mischief; horseplay.
