A glossary of Tudor and Stuart words, especially from the dramatists

by Walter W. Skeat

safe, to make safe, to secure. Ant. and Cl. i. 3. 55; saft, pt. t., Chapman, tr. of Iliad, viii. 291; pp., id., 444.

safeguard, an outer skirt worn by women to protect their dress when riding; ‘Enter Moll, in a frieze jerkin and a black safeguard’, Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1; Fletcher, Noble Gentleman, ii. 1 (Marine). Formerly in prov. use in the west country in Devon, pronounced ‘seggard’; see (EDD.) (s.v. Safeguard). See Nares.

saffo, a serjeant, catchpole. B. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 5 (Vol.); v. 8 (1 Avoc). Ital. ‘zaffo (saffo), a common serjeant or base catch-pole, specially in Venice’ (Florio).

sag(g, to sink or subside gradually; ‘The Elme and the Ash are tough, howbeit they will soone settle downward and sag, being charged with any weight’, Holland, Pliny, i. 492; fig. (of the mind), ‘The minde I sway by . . . shall never sagge with doubt’, Macbeth, v. 3. 10; sagge, hanging or sagging down, Herrick, Oberon’s Feast, 27. In gen. prov. use in England and Scotland, see EDD. (s.v. Sag, vb.²). ME. saggyn (Prompt.).

sagg, to drag oneself along wearily or feebly. Drayton, Pol. xvi. 219; Twyne, tr. Aeneid, x. 283. Norw. dial. sagga, to walk heavily and slowly from weariness (Ross).

saine, pr. pl., they say. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 55. ME. seien, pr. pl. P. Plowman).

saint, a card-game; see [cent].

Saint Nicholas’ clerk, a highwayman. 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 67; Rowley, A Match at Midnight, i. 1 (Randall). See Nares (s.v. Nicholas).

Saint Thomas à Waterings, a place anciently used for executions for the county of Surrey, as Tyburn for Middlesex. It was situated at the second milestone on the Kent road, near a brook, a place for watering horses, whence its name; dedicated to St. Thomas Beket, being the first place of any note on the road to Canterbury: ‘And forth we riden . . . Unto the watering of seint Thomas, And there our host bigin his hors areste’, Chaucer, C. T. A. 826. The allusions to this spot as a place of execution are numerous; ‘He may perhaps take a degree at Tyburn . . . come to read a lecture Upon Aquinas, at St. Thomas à Watering’s, And so go forth a laureat in hemp circle’, B. Jonson, New Inn, i (Host). See Nares (s.v. Waterings).

saker, a kind of falcon. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xv. 696; Middleton, Span. Gipsy, ii. 1 (Alvarez); also, a kind of ordnance or cannon, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 3 (Bots); Butler, Hud. i. 2. 355. This word for a falcon is common to all the Latin nations; of Arabic origin, see Dozy, Glossaire, 338.