setwall, the East Indian plant zedoary, Palsgrave; the plant valerian, ‘Drink-quickning Setwale’, Spenser, Muiopotmos, 196; spelt cetywall, Drayton, Ballad of Dowsabell, 33 (in later editions setywall). ME. setwale or sedwale, ‘zedoarium’ (Prompt.); cetewale (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3207). O. Span. cetoal, sitoval, cedoaria; of Arabic origin, see Dozy, Glossaire, 251.
sew, to follow; ‘Seven kings sewen me’, World and Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 248; to sue, to plead, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 12. 29; to woo, id., iii. 5. 47. See Dict. (s.v. Sue).
sew, to drain dry; ‘To drain and sew’, North, tr. of Plutarch, Jul. Caesar, § 39 (in Shak. Plut., p. 93); Tusser, Husbandry, 32. In prov. use in E. Anglia, Kent, Sussex, and Dorset, see EDD. (s.v. Sew, vb.2). OF. esuer (Burguy); F. essuier, to dry up (Cotgr.); essuier, ‘évier, conduit par lequel s’écoulent les eaux sales d’une cuisine’ (Didot). See Hatzfeld (s.v. Essuyer).
sewell; see [shewelle].
sewer, an attendant at a meal who superintended the seating of the guests, and the tasting and serving of the dishes. Macbeth, i. 7, Stage Direction. ME. sewer at the mete, ‘depositor, discoforus’ (Cath. Angl.); seware at mete, ‘dapifer’ (Prompt.). OF. asseour, ‘en parlant du service de la table, qui fait asseoir’ (Godefroy), Pop. L. assedatorem (acc.), one who sets, places, deriv. of assedare, to set, place, cp. Norm. F. aseer, to place; see Moisy.
sextile, denoting the aspect or relative position of two planets, when distant from each other by sixty degrees; a sextile aspect. Fletcher, Bloody Brother, iv. 2 (Norbret); Randolph, Jealous Lovers, v. 2; Milton, P. L. x. 659.
seymy, greasy. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 124; l. 169. See [seam].
sforzato, a galley-slave. B. Jonson, Volpone, ii. 1 (Vol.). Ital. ‘sforzati, galley-slaves, as forced to do anything’ (Florio), cp. F. ‘forçat, galley-slave’ (Cotgr.).
shack, the shaken grain which remains on the fields after harvesting; hence shack-time, the time during which this grain remains on the ground, Tusser, Husbandry, § 16. 30; to shack, to turn pigs or poultry into the stubble fields. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Shake, 9, 20, 21).
†shackatory, apparently, a huntsman’s underling. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 1 (Orlando). See NED.