Spith. (Another form of pith, from the Old-English “piða”). Strength, force.
Sprack. Not only quick, lively, brisk, active, as given in the glossaries, but neat, tidy. Used also in this last sense in Wiltshire.
Spratter. The common guillemot (Uria troile). In Norfolk (see Transactions of the Philological Society, 1855, p. 37) we have “sprat-mowe,” for a herring-gull; and in Kent, “sprat-loon,” for one of the grebes.
Squab, A. Anything large. Thus “a squab of a piece,” is constantly used in this sense. In a different meaning it is confounded with squat. So a thick-set, heavy person is called a “squab.”
Squoyles. Glances. See chap. xvi., [p. 182].
Stabble. Marks, footprints, always used in the plural. This is another of those onomatopoëtic words which Mr. Wedgwood might add to the forms step, stamp, stipple, all derived by a similar process. (See the Introduction to his Dictionary of Etymology, p. x.) In an old rhyme, common in the New Forest, upon a hailstorm, we find the word:—
“Go round the ricks,
And round the ricks,
And make as many stabble
As nine score sheep.”