Sow sb.1. World English Historical Dictionary

Sow sb.1. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1919, rev. 2025. Sow sb.1 Forms: α. 1 suʓu, suʓa, 3 suȝe-, 4 zoȝe, 5 sogh(e, sowhe, 5, 7, 9 sough. β. 2 suwa, 3 suwe, 3–4 souwe, 4–6 soowe, 4–7 sowe, 4– sow, 6, 9 Sc. sou. γ. north. dial. 5–7, 9 sew. δ. 6, 9 dial. soo. [OE. suʓu, = WFris. sûch, NFris. sögg, su, MDu. soge, seuge (Du. zeug) and soch, such (Du. zog), MLG. soge, suge (LG. soge), related to OHG. and MHG. sû (G. sau) and ON. sý-r (acc. sú; MSW., Sw. and Da. so), also L. sūs, Gr. ὖς, Zend hu. The stem su-, of doubtful origin, also appears in SWINE.]

1   1.  The female of swine; an adult or full-grown female pig, esp. a domestic one used for breeding.

2   α.  c. 725.  Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), S 172. Scroffa, suʓu.

3 c. 897.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., liv. 419. Sio suʓu hi wille sylian on hire sole æfterðæmðe hio aðwæʓen bið.

4 1340.  Ayenb., 61. Hy byeþ anlicned to þe zoȝe huanne hi heþ yuarȝed.

5 1426.  Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 13358. I logge … As a sowhe, in donge and clay.

6 c. 1460.  Towneley Myst., XII. 274. And it were for a sogh Ther is drynk enogh.

7   β.  c. 1150.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 543. Scroffa, suwa.

8 a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 204. Þe Suwe of ȝiuernesse, þet is, Glutunie, haueð pigges þus inemned.

9 c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 62. A-mong alle bestes … A-corsed þou beo, luþere souwe.

10 c. 1340.  Nominale (Skeat) 731. Sengler, troie, et suel, Bor, sowe, and gilte.

11 c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., IV. pr. iii. (1868), 122. He is wiþholden in þe foule delices of þe foule soowe.

12 14[?].  Sir Beues (C.), 2509. Hys heere was as þe brystels of a sowe.

13 a. 1450.  Knt. de la Tour (1868), 43. In the pathe he saw a gret blacke swyne and a sowe.

14 1523.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 121. Let them be bores and sowes all, and no hogges.

15 1573.  Tusser, Husb. (1873), 74. Good faring sow holds profit with cow.

16 1605.  Shaks., Macb., IV. i. 64. Powre in Sowes blood, that hath eaten Her nine Farrow.

17 1661.  Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 117. The large sided sow is best.

18 1764.  Museum Rust., I. 476. When I have a parcel of young pigs in winter, I find these sows will fat them better.

19 1820.  Shelley, Œd. Tyr., II. i. 36. The lean Sows and Boars collect about her.

20 1847.  Tennyson, Princess, I. 191. All the swine were sows.

21 1871.  B. Taylor, Faust (1875), I. XXI. 183. A tough old sow, and the mother thereon, Then follow the witches every one.

22   γ.  c. 1440.  Alph. Tales, 187. On a tyme þer was a man þat stale his neghbur sew.

23 1557.  Richmond Wills (Surtees), 101. Hoggs. v. sewes and one boore.

24 1684.  [cf. sense 2].

25 1807.  R. Anderson, Cumbld. Ball. (c. 1850), 151. Twee braid-backt tips, an’ a bonny sew.

26 1883.  Almondbury Gloss., Sew, Soo, or Seoo, a sow.

27   δ.  1561.  Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 35. Geue him the milke of a Soo.

28 1883.  [see γ].

29   † b.  My sow’s pigged, a former card-game. Obs.

30   Some other dial. uses are given in the Eng. Dial. Dict.

31 1621.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Motto, D iv. At Primefisto, Post and payre, Primero,… he’s a lib’rall Hero; At My-Sow-pigg’d, and (Reader neuer doubt ye, He’s skil’d in all games, except) Looke about ye.

32 1642.  Tom Nash His Ghost, A iv. For your Religions you may (many of you) cast Crosse and Pile, and for your iust dealing you may play at my Sow ha’s Pigg’d.

33 1734.  Poor Robin’s Almanack, C vj. The Lawyers play at Beggar my Neighbour; the Schoolmasters play at Questions and Commands; the Farmers play at My Sow’s pigg’d.

34 1883.  Almondbury Gloss., 115. ‘My sow’s pigg’d’ was a game at cards played in this neighbourhood some forty-five years ago.

35   2.  Applied to persons (male or female) as a term of abuse, opprobrium, or reproach, esp. to a fat, clumsy or slovenly woman.

36 1508.  Kennedie, Flyting w. Dunbar, 321. Insensuat sow, cesse fals Eustase air!

37 a. 1585.  Polwart, Flyting w. Montgomerie, 743. Sweir sow, doyld kow, ay fow, foull fall thy banes!

38 1630.  Cosin’s Corresp. (Surtees), I. 174. You tore her sleeve, with these reprochfull words, ‘Can ye not stand, ye lazie sowes!’

39 1684.  Yorks. Dial., 13 (E. D. S.). Ise ding thy Harnes out, thou base mucky Sew.

40 1696.  Phillips (ed. 5), Sow,… a term of Reproach given many times to a fat, lazy, rank, big breasted Woman.

41 1725.  Bailey, Erasm. Colloq. (1878), I. 387. The Wife [has been called] Sow, Fool, dirty Drab.

42 1785.  Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Sow, a fat woman.

43 1803.  Boswell, Songs, 5. Ye’re a sow, auld man, Ye get fou, auld man.

44 1825.  Brockett, N. C. Gloss., Sow, an inelegant female, a dirty wench.

45   3.  In various phrases or proverbial uses: a. To get, have, or take the (or † a) wrong (or right) sow by the ear, or variants of this: To get hold of, hit upon, the wrong (or right) person or thing; to take an incorrect (or correct) view; to arrive at a wrong (or right) conclusion, solution, etc.

46 1562.  J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 75. Ye may sée, ye tooke The wrong way to wood, and the wrong sow by theare.

47 1570.  Foxe, A. & M. (ed. 2), 2034/1. I perceiue … that that man hath the sow by the right eare.

48 1630.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Wit & Mirth, Wks. II. 180/2. I knew when he first medled with your Ladyship, that hee had a wrong Sow by the eare.

49 1697.  Vanbrugh, Æsop, II. He that goes to a courtier in hope to get fairly rid of ’em may be said, in our country-dialect, to take the wrong sow by the ear.

50 1761.  Brit. Mag., II. 463. Crahshaw … told her he believed she had got the right sow by the ear.

51 1841.  Hood, T. of Trumpet, 681. The sow that ought By the ear is caught—And the sin to the sinful door is brought.

52 1852.  De Quincey, Schlosser’s Lit. Hist., Wks. 1858, VIII. 60. When he finds that he has not only got the wrong sow by the ear, but actually sold the sow to a bookseller.

53   b.  In other allusive phrases.

54   See also SILK sb. 6 and STILL a.

55 1546.  J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 24. Littell knoweth the fat sow, what the leane dooth meane. Ibid., 32. What should we (quoth I) grease the fat sow in thars. Ibid. (1562), Prov. & Epigr., 64. God haue mercy hors, a pyg of mine owne sow.

56 1567.  Maplet, Gr. Forest, Pref. Not to teach or shew the learned, howe in this point Nature hath wrought (for that were as the prouerb is, ye Sow to Minerua).

57 1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 523. In Latin they say Sus Minervam, when an unlearned dunce goeth about to teach his better or a more learned man,… or as we say in English, the foul Sow teach the fair Lady to spin.

58   c.  In comparative phrases, esp. as drunk as David’s sow or as a sow (cf. quots.).

59 1562.  J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 43. As meete as a sowe to beare a saddle.

60 c. 1590.  Greene, Fr. Bacon (1630), E iv b. I am as seruiceable at a table, as a Sow is vnder an Apple tree.

61 1727.  Gay, New Song of New Similes, ii. For, though as drunk as David’s sow, I love her still the better.

62 1816.  Sporting Mag., XLVIII. 39. A man is said to be … when he cannot see, ‘as drunk as a sow.’

63 1877.  E. Peacock, N. W. Linc. Gloss., 233. ‘As happy as a sow i’ muck,’ or ‘in a muck-hill’; a phrase setting forth the contented state of those who live for sensual pleasure. Ibid. ‘As drunk as David’s sow’ is a simile conveying the idea of the deepest state of intoxication.

64   4.  Mil. A movable structure having a strong roof, used to cover men advancing to the walls of a besieged town or fortress, and to protect them while engaged in sapping and mining or other operations. Now Hist.

65 [c. 1125.  William of Malmesb., De Gestis Reg., IV. (Rolls), II. 426. Unum fuit machinamentum quod nostri suem, veteres vineam vocant; quod machina … protegit in se subsidentes, qui, quasi more suis, ad murorum suffodienda penetrant fundamenta.]

66 1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 8480. A gyn þat me sowe clupeþ hii made ek wel strong, Muche folc inne vor to be boþe wid & long.

67 1375.  Barbour, Bruce, XVII. 597. Of gret gestis ane sow thai maid, That stalward heling owth it had, With armyt men enew thar-in.

68 1412–20.  Lydg., Chron. Troy, II. 6434. What with gynnys … And gonnys grete, for to caste stonys…, And large sowis lowe for to myne.

69 1486.  Excheq. Rolls Scot., IX. 434. Willelmo Andirson, carpentario, pro factura unius instrumenti bellici vocati le sow.

70 1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot., III. 342. Than pik and tar, talloun and brynt stane,… Vpoun that sow richt suddantlie leit fall, Quhilk … scaldit hes richt mony than to deid Within the sow.

71 1610.  W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. xiii. 45. Engines … Militarie; as Battering-Rams, Sowes, Horses, Tortuses.

72 1633.  T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., I. x. 68. The Castle therefore they besiege, and placed an Engine (well knowen in this Countrey), called a Sow (to the Wals thereof) to supp [sic] the same.

73 1694.  Motteux, Rabelais, IV. xl. (1737), 159. The Engineers … fitted up the great Sow.

74 1788.  Grose, Milit. Antiq., II. 307. Two machines, the one called the boar, the other the sow, were employed by the parliamentarians in the siege of Corfe castle.

75 1828–43.  Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), I. 137/1. It was determined to undermine the walls; and for this purpose, a huge machine was constructed…. From its shape and covering, this formidable engine was called a sow.

76 1866.  Kingsley, Herew., xxviii. They made a floating-sow, and thrust it on before them as they worked across the stream.

77 1893.  H. J. Moule, Old Dorset, 211. The Parliamentarians took the trouble to bring this ponderous affair, called a ‘sow,’ close to the castle.

78   b.  U.S. ‘A movable shed used as a protection by miners’ (1895 Funk’s Stand. Dict.).

79   5.  a. A wood-louse or sow-bug. Now chiefly dial.

80   14[?].  in Rel. Antiq., I. 204. Geve hym of these sowes that crepe with many fete, and falle oute of howce rovys.

81 1558.  Warde, trans. Alexis’ Secr., 23 b. Then take twelue or fiftene of these litle beastes called Monkes peason or sowes.

82 1572.  Mascall, Plant & Graffe, 51. There be little beastes called Sowes, which haue many legs.

83 1600.  Surflet, Countrie Farme, I. viii. 39. If wals be full of sowes and such other like vermine.

84 1668.  Charleton, Onomast., 50. Asellus, the Tylers Lowse, or, Sow.

85 1725.  Fam. Dict., s.v. Ulcer, For Ulcers…, Take Millepedes, call’d by some in English Wood-Lice, and by others Sows.

86 a. 1825–.  in dial. glossaries (E. Anglia, Linc., Leic., Northants, Nottingham, etc.).

87 1877.  F. P. Pascoe, Zool. Class., 62. Some of the Oniscidæ are land animals, and are known as hog-lice, sows, &c.

88   b.  Sea-sow: see SEA sb. 23 d.

89   6.  techn. A large oblong mass of solidified metal as obtained from the blast- or smelting-furnace.

90   a.  Of lead. Now Obs. or rare.

91   So MDu. soge in a document of 1445.

92 1481–90.  Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.), 311. My Lord paied to Geffrey Blower for ij. sowes lede … weying … xvj. c. iij. quarters and xiiij. lb.

93 c. 1529.  Skelton, E. Rummyng, 72. With clothes vpon her hed That wey a sowe of led.

94 1546.  in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 182. For meltyng of the leade…, and castyng into sowes.

95 1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 611. Twenty sowes of lead long in forme, but foure square.

96 1668.  Phil. Trans., III. 770. It is cast into Sand, and runs into those Sowes (as they call them) which they sell.

97 1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. 260/2. A Pig or Sow of Lead, is generally about three hundred pounds apiece.

98 1700.  J. Brome, Trav., i. (1707), 34. The [Lead] Ore … being … afterwards melted down into Pigs and Sows, as they are there call’d.

99   b.  Of iron. (See note to PIG sb.1 7 and quots.)

100 1539.  in Hist. Sussex (Victoria Co. Hist.), II. 245/2. To melt the Sowes in ij forges or Fynories ther must be iiij persones.

101 1612.  S. Sturtevant, Metallica (1854), 113. The second kind of Metallar is the Sowe of iron.

102 1645–52.  Boate, Irelands Nat. Hist. (1860), 113. The molten Iron … turning into a hard and stiff mass, which masses are called Sowes by the workmen.

103 1676.  Hobbes, Iliad, XXIII. 817.        And then of Iron he brought out a Sough   Such as at first it from the Fornace came.

104 a. 1744.  Lucas, in Trans. Cumb. & Westm. Archaeol. Soc. (N.S.), VIII. 38. They break the Sow and Pigs off from one another, and the Sow into the same Lengths with the Piggs.

105 1837.  Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 408. (Smith), The price of iron, in bars, pigs, and sows, has been upon the advance.

106 1894.  Harper’s Mag., Jan., 418/2. When the metal cools, the larger masses are called ‘sows,’ and the smaller ‘pigs.’

107   c.  In general use: A bar or mass of metal; an ingot. Now Obs. or rare.

108 1570–6.  Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), p. v. By fire to trie out the Metall and to cast it into certeine rude lumps, which they call Sowze.

109 1590.  Webbe, Trav. (Arb.), 23. A place … where they had great store of Treasure and Sowes of Silver.

110 a. 1656.  Ussher, Ann. (1658), 225. Diodorus reckons upward of 400 thousand talents of silver and gold in sowes and wedges.

111 1702.  C. Mather, Magn. Chr., II. App. (1852), 172. Upon further diving the Indian fetcht up a sow, as they stiled it, or a lump of silver.

112   d.  fig. or in fig. context.

113 1570–6.  Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 474. If any man shall like to take this mettall, drawen by me out of a fewe Sowes into many sheetes.

114 1599.  Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, Wks. (Grosart), V. 293. This vnciuill Norman hotpotch, this sow of lead, that hath neuer a ring at the end to lift it vp by.

115   e.  One of the larger channels, or the main channel, in the hearth of an iron-smelting furnace, serving as a feeder to the smaller channels or ‘pigs’ (see quots.).

116 1843.  Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 371. The metal is led from the furnace, through a gutter lined with sand, into a large trough or sow, the end of which is closed with a shuttle.

117 1884.  W. H. Greenwood, Steel & Iron, 129. These feeders or sows are themselves put in connection with a common main channel, d, leading from the tap-hole to the lower end of the sand- or pig-bed.

118   f.  (See quot.)

119 1871.  Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining. Eng., I. 112. Metallic iron, not finding heat enough in a lead-furnace to keep it sufficiently fluid to run out with the slag, congeals in the hearth, and forms what smelters term ‘sows,’ ‘bears,’ ‘horses,’ or ‘salamanders.’

120   7.  Sc. and north. A large oblong-shaped rick or stack, esp. of hay.

121 1659.  A. Hay, Diary (S.H.S.), 155. My whole hey was a great ruck of the Lawes meadow, and 3 litle rucks,… all which I did put in one sow in the yaird.

122 1756.  Mrs. Calderwood, in Coltness Collect. (Maitland Club), 166. Severall great sows of hay were on the cannall…; it looked very odd to see a hay sow, perhaps fifty or sixty foot long,… sailing along.

123 1799.  J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 220. The stack is frequently made in an oblong form, which is vulgarly called a sow.

124 1833.  J. S. Sands, Poems, 168 (E.D.D.). Like the donkey wi’ the sous Of hay.

125 1871.  C. Gibbon, Lack of Gold, viii. Behind was the farm-yard, and well-stocked with fat stacks of grain and hay ‘sows.’

126   8.  attrib. and Comb. (chiefly in sense 1), as sow-hair, -herd, -pap, -skin, -sticking, -tail, -teat, etc.; sow-like adv.; sow-drunk a. (see sense 3 c); † sow-guard, = sense 4; sow-libber Sc., a sow-gelder; sow-louse, a wood-louse, sow-bug (now dial.). See also SOW-GELDER, -IRON, -METAL.

127 1509.  Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 33 b. Some *sowe dronke, swalowing meate without measure, Some maudlayne dronke, mourning loudly and hye.

128 1522.  More, De quat. Noviss., Wks. 82/2. Yet shal ye find mo yt drink themself sow drunk of pride to be called good felowes, than for luste of the drink self.

129 1880.  Tennyson, Northern Cobbler, iv. Soä sow-droonk that tha doesn not touch thy ’at to the Squire.

130 1582.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 58. They clinge thee scalinges too wals, and vnder a *sowgard They clymb.

131 1597.  Deloney, Gentle Craft, I. iv. The Aule steele and tackes, the *Sow-haires beside.

132 1565.  Cooper, Thesaurus, Scrofipascus,… a *sow hearde.

133 c. 1682.  F. Sempill, Blythsome Wedding, 22. There will be *Sow-libber Peatie.

134 1603.  J. Davies (Heref.), Microcosmos, Wks. (Grosart), I. 65/1. For, to dismount from true loue’s loftie pitch … Is, *Sow-like, to lie mired in the ditch Of lowest Hell.

135 1658.  Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 932. Flyes, Gnats, *Sowlice, Fleas, that do much hurt and do no good.

136 1866.  Brogden, Prov. Lincs., Sow-louse, the wood-louse.

137 c. 1440.  Alph. Tales, 437. Þan he garte caste it emang swyne at þai mott devowr it; and þer it was nurisshid on a *sew papp.

138 1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iii. 20. If Tinkers may haue leaue to liue, and beare the *Sow-skin Bowget.

139 1823.  Spirit Public Jrnls., 459. He … instantly crammed it back again into the sow-skin purse from which he had taken it.

140 1883.  J. Purves, in Longman’s Mag., April, 649. At the *sow-sticking, a great event, the neighbours lend helping hands.

141 1787.  Burns, Halloween, iv. A runt was like a *sow-tail, Sae bow’t that night.

142 a. 1661.  Holyday, Juvenal (1673), 216. Trypherus the learned, who Carves large *Sow-teats.

143   b.  In plant-names, as † sowbane, goosefoot (Chenopodium); † sow-fennel, sulphur-wort; sow-tit, the wood-strawberry; sow-wort, = SOW-BREAD. See also SOW-THISTLE.

144   Some others are current in dialects or U.S.

145 1657.  W. Coles, Adam in Eden, cccix. 577. Goose-foot or *Sowbane.

146 1796.  Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), II. 271. Red Goosefoot. Sowbane.

147 1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, 298. It is called … in Englishe also Peucedanum, Horestrong,… *Sowe fenill, and of some Sulphurwurt.

148 1611.  Cotgr., Fenouil de porceau, Sow-fennell, Hogs-fennell.

149 1788.  M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), I. 410. It is on a plain … covered with trees—a white oak four feet in diameter near the summit—cavity in the middle covered with *sow-tits.

150 1838.  T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 708. M. Saladin found in the root of the Cyclamen Europeum, or *sow wort, a peculiar bitter principle.

151   c.  With the names of animals, etc., in the sense of ‘female,’ as sow-cat (also transf.), † -child, -hog, -swine; sow-wasp dial., a queen wasp. See also SOW-PIG.

152 1676.  Phil. Trans., XI. 592. A Chat Pard (supposed to be engendred by a Leopard and a *Sow-catt).

153 1689.  N. Lee, Princ. Cleves, III. i. St. A. For there’s two ravenous Sow-Cats will Eat you. El. Your Wives you mean.

154 1875.  Parish, Dict. Sussex Dial., 108. I’ll give that old sow-cat o’ yourn a sock aside the head.

155 1699.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, *Sow-child, a Female Child.

156 1648.  Hexham, II. Een Zoch, a *Sowe-hogge.

157 1822.  Shelley, Faust, II. 154. Upon a *sow-swine, whose farrows were nine, Old Baubo rideth alone.

158 1875.  Parish, Dict. Sussex Dial., 110. In some parts of the county a reward of sixpence is offered for each *sow-waps killed in the spring.

159   d.  Genitival combs., as sow’s-baby, slang and Cant (see quots.); sow’s-back, local (see quot. 1789); † sow’s bread, = SOW-BREAD; † sow’s thistle, = SOW-THISTLE.

160 a. 1400.  Stockholm Med. MS., fol. 198. Sowesthystyl, labrum.

161 1558.  Warde, trans. Alexis’ Secrets (1562), 13. Take an herbe called … in Englishe sowes breade.

162 1699.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Sow’s baby, a Pig.

163 1785.  Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Sow’s baby, a sucking pig.

164 1789.  J. Williams, Min. Kingd., I. 107. We … bring up a level mine under the pavement of the coal, quite through the ridge, in order to level the coal upon the other side of it. Some of the Scots colliers call this a ridge, others of them call it a hirst, and some of them call it a sow’s-back.

165 1859.  Slang Dict., 98. Sow’s baby,… sixpence.

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