Shop-lifting. This phrase for abstracting goods from a shop counter had its origin in the printer’s technical term “Lifting.”
Shoreditch. All other suggested derivations notwithstanding, this district really received its name from the manor of Sir John Soerditch, a wealthy citizen, and a favourite of Edward the Black Prince, by whose side he fought at Crecy and Poitiers.
Show. Theatrical slang for a performance.
Shrewsbury. See “[Shropshire].”
Shropshire. This name expresses in a roundabout way the shire of Shrewsbury, the Anglo-Saxon Scrobbesburgh that grew up around an ancient castle among the scrubs or shrubs, softened by the Normans into Sloppesbury, which lent its name to what is now “Salop,” and finally corrupted into Shrewsbury.
Shrove Tuesday. A corruption of “Shrive Tuesday” when all good Catholics confessed their sins in preparation for receiving the blest ashes on the following morning.
Siberia. The country ruled from the ancient town of Sibir, the capital of the Tartars, and which contained the palace of the renowned Kutsheen Khan, the ruins of which are still visible.
Sicily. From the Siculi, a tribe who became masters of the island, expelling the Sicanii, its ancient inhabitants.
Sick. A word uniformly used throughout the United States in the place of “ill,” as in our own country. This is not an Americanism, but good honest English, having been introduced to the New World by the Pilgrim Fathers who sailed in the Mayflower. Both in the Bible and in Shakespeare sick, not ill, is employed. This is one of the few instances in which the Americans have preserved a word true to its original meaning.
Sidmouth Street. After Lord Sidmouth, a popular Minister at the accession of George IV., when this street was first built upon.