Glossary list

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Glossaries

Term Main definition
smart¹

Smart money: An allowance paid to sailors and soldiers as compensation for disability or injury received while in service; (also) a similar payment made to workers (such as miners) for injury received at work. Any compensation made for injury or other loss [OED]

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Smock¹

A loose over-garment worn to protect the clothes beneath. The smock was worn by 'country folk', living and working in rural communities, of the mid and southern counties of England, and to a limited extent, Wales. Popular in the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries, they fell out of fashion during the Victorian period and were considered unfashionable by the mid 19th century [Museum of English working Life http://www.reading.ac.uk/merl/the_collections/the_museum/smocks.html]

A Man in a Smock by James Ward (1769 1859) date not known
Source http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ward-a-man-in-a-smock-n03704

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snarl¹

snarl: a tangle

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Synonyms - snarls¹
snob¹

The citations in the OED suggest that before c1850 a snob was "a person belonging to the ordinary or lower social class; one having no pretensions to rank or gentility" but after c1850 it came to mean "A person who admires and seeks to imitate, or associate with, those of higher social status or greater wealth; one who wishes to be regarded as a person of social importance".

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Synonyms - snobs¹
snuff(1)

A preparation of powdered tobacco for inhaling through the nostrils [OED]

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Snug(1)

Bar-parlour of an inn or public house [OED]

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society of friends¹

A Christian religious movement founded by George Fox in 1648-50 generally known as the Quakers

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Soda
Soda-ash or Sodium carbonate (Na2CO3). An alkaline substance obtained originally from the ashes of certain marine or other salt-impregnated plants, used largely in commerce, esp. in the manufacture of glass and soap.
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something_in_the_city¹

Employed in some unspecified way in financial services in the city of London [OED]

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Songster¹

Songster : A collection of songs - usually without musical notation - presented in a bound volume.

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Synonyms - Songsters¹
sooth¹

True, in accordance with the truth, not false or fictitious [Dictionary of the Scots Language]

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sope(1)

A small quantity [A Glossary of Lancashire Dialect http://www.dunkerley-tuson.co.uk/Pages/LancashireDialectGlossary.aspx]

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Sou'-Wester¹

A large waterproof hat or cap, originally made of oilskin, with a broad rim, worn esp. at sea to protect the head and neck during rough or wet weather. [OED]

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southdown

A breed of sheep [CPB]

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sovereign¹

¹Sovereign:- A gold coin of the (nominal) value of one pound [OED]

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Synonyms - sovereigns¹,sovering¹
Spalpeen¹

A rogue, rascal, or small-scale troublemaker.
A spailpín, (Anglicised as spailpeen or spalpeen) or "wandering landless labourer" derived from the Irish spailp, meaning "turn, spell, bout." [i]. Landless migratory seasonal agricultural labourers in the late eighteenth/ early 19th centuries were employed on Scottish farms. The spailpíni were precursors of the navvies in Scotland [ii]
The term came to be used as a pejorative by native Scots.

References:
[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spailp%C3%ADn (accessed 03May21)
[ii] Professor Ian Russell, The Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen - personal communication.

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Synonyms - spalpan¹
spanking¹

The OED gives "fine; exceptionally good in some respect, frequently with implication of showiness or smartness." The Dictionary of the Scots Language suugests "Nimble, agile, fit, spirited". 

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spardeck¹

A light upper deck in a vessel [OED]

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sparter¹

Spart: A term of abuse of obscure origin [OED]

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spar¹

Spar: The general term for all masts, yards, booms, gaffs, etc [OED]

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Synonyms - spars¹

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