Sword-cutler, (Fourbisseur, Fr.) One who makes swords.
Sword-knot, (Nœud d’épée, Fr.) A ribband tied to the hilt of a sword. All officers should wear sword-knots of a peculiar color and make. They are made of blue silk and gold or silver.
SYCOPHANT. A dirty, mean, groveling creature that sometimes finds its way into the army, and gets to the ear of a superior officer, for the purpose of undermining the good opinion which honest valor and open manhood may have obtained.
SYEF, Ind. A long sword.
SYEF-ul Mulk, Ind. The sword of the kingdom.
SYMBOL. In a military sense, badge. Every regiment in the British service has its peculiar badge.
SYMBOLE, Fr. The French make use of this word in the same sense that they apply Enseigne. Symbole means with them, in a military sense, what badge does with us.
SYMMETRY, (Symmetrie, Fr.) A word derived from the Greek. True symmetry consists in a due proportion, or in the relation of equality in the height, length, and breadth of the parts, which are required to make a beautiful whole, or in an uniformity of the parts with respect to the whole.
SYRTES or sables mouvans, Fr. Quicksands.
SYSTEM, (Systeme, Fr.) A scheme which reduces many things to regular dependence or co-operation. This word is frequently applied to some particular mode of drilling and exercising men to fit them for manœuvres and evolutions. Hence the Prussian system, the Austrian system, the new or mathematical system, &c.