Sivvy, “’pon my SIVVY,” i.e., upon my soul or honour. Corruption of “asseveration,” like DAVY, which is an abridgment of “affidavit.”
Sixes and sevens, articles in confusion are said to be all SIXES AND SEVENS. The Deity is mentioned in the Towneley Mysteries as He that “set all on seven,” i.e., set or appointed everything in seven days. A similar phrase at this early date implied confusion and disorder, and from these, Halliwell thinks, has been derived the phrase “to be at SIXES AND SEVENS.” A Scotch correspondent, however, states that the phrase probably came from the workshop, and that amongst needle-makers, when the points and eyes are “heads and tails” (“heeds and thraws”), or in confusion, they are said to be SIXES AND SEVENS, because those numbers are the sizes most generally used, and in the course of manufacture have frequently to be distinguished.
Sixty, “to go along like SIXTY,” i.e., at a good rate, briskly.
Sixty-per-cent, a bill-discounter. From the rate of interest generally charged. If bill-discounters profess to do the business for less, they generally make up the level sixty by extras.
Six-water grog, a sea-term for the weakest grog possible—six portions of water to one of rum—hardly enough spirit to “swear by.”
Size, to order extras over and above the usual commons at the dinner in college halls. Soup, pastry, &c., are SIZINGS, and are paid for at a certain specified rate per SIZE, or portion, to the college cook. Peculiar to Cambridge. Minsheu says, “SIZE, a farthing which schollers in Cambridge have at the buttery, noted with the letter s.”
Sizers, or SIZARS, certain poor scholars at Cambridge, annually elected, who got their dinners (including “sizings”) from what was left at the upper, or Fellows’ table, free, or nearly so. They paid rent of rooms, and some other fees, on a lower scale than the “Pensioners” or ordinary students, and were equal with the “battlers” and “servitors” at Oxford.
Sizings. See [SIZE].
Skedaddle, to go off in a hurry. The American war introduced this new and amusing word. A Northerner who retreated “retired upon his supports,” but a Southerner was said to SKEDADDLE. The Times remarked on the word, and Lord Hill wrote to prove that it was excellent Scotch. The Americans only misapply the word, which means, in Dumfries, “to spill”—milkmaids, for example, saying, “You are SKEDADDLING all that milk.” The Yankees therefore adopted the term, and altered the application.