Chapter 30 of 134 · 3980 words · ~20 min read

Part 30

Sem`pi*ter"ni*ty (?), n. [L. sempiternitas.] Future duration without end; the relation or state of being sempiternal. Sir M. Hale.

Sem"pre (?), adv. [It., fr. L. semper.] (Mus.) Always; throughout; as, sempre piano, always soft.

Semp"ster (?), n. A seamster. [Obs.]

Semp"stress (?), n. A seamstress.

Two hundred sepstress were employed to make me shirts.

Swift.

Semp"stress*y (?), n. Seamstressy.

Sem"ster (?), n. A seamster. [Obs.]

||Se*mun"ci*a (?), n. [L., fr. semi half + uncia ounce.] (Rom. Antiq.) ||A Roman coin equivalent to one twenty-fourth part of a Roman pound.

Sen (?), n. A Japanese coin, worth about one half of a cent.

Sen, adv., prep., & conj. [See Since.] Since. [Obs.]

Sen"a*ry (?), a. [L. senarius, fr. seni six each, fr. sex six. See Six.] Of six; belonging to six; containing six. Dr. H. More.

Sen"ate (?), n. [OE. senat, F. sénat, fr. L. senatus, fr. senex, gen. senis, old, an old man. See Senior, Sir.] 1. An assembly or council having the highest deliberative and legislative functions. Specifically: (a) (Anc. Rom.) A body of elders appointed or elected from among the nobles of the nation, and having supreme legislative authority.

The senate was thus the medium through which all affairs of the whole government had to pass.

Dr. W. Smith.

(b) The upper and less numerous branch of a legislature in various countries, as in France, in the United States, in most of the separate States of the United States, and in some Swiss cantons. (c) In general, a legislative body; a state council; the legislative department of government.

2. The governing body of the Universities of Cambridge and London. [Eng.]

3. In some American colleges, a council of elected students, presided over by the president of the college, to which are referred cases of discipline and matters of general concern affecting the students. [U. S.]

Senate chamber, a room where a senate meets when it transacts business. -- Senate house, a house where a senate meets when it transacts business.

Sen"a*tor (?), n. [OE. senatour, OF. senatour, F. sénateur, fr. L. senator.] 1. A member of a senate.

The duke and senators of Venice greet you.

Shak.

In the United States, each State sends two senators for a term of six years to the national Congress.

2. (O.Eng.Law) A member of the king's council; a king's councilor. Burrill.

Sen`a*to"ri*al (?), a. [F. sénatorial, or L. senatorius.] 1. Of or pertaining to a senator, or a senate; becoming to a senator, or a senate; as, senatorial duties; senatorial dignity.

2. Entitled to elect a senator, or by senators; as, the senatorial districts of a State. [U. S.]

Sen`a*to"ri*al*ly, adv. In a senatorial manner.

Sen`a*to"ri*an (?), a. Senatorial. [R.] De Quincey.

Sen`a*to"ri*ous (?), a. Senatorial. [Obs.]

Sen"a*tor*ship (?), n. The office or dignity of a senator. Carew.

Se*na`tus*con*sult" (?), n. [L. senatus consultum.] A decree of the Roman senate.

Send (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sent (&?;); p. pr. & vb. n. Sending.] [AS. sendan; akin to OS. sendian, D. zenden, G. senden, OHG. senten, Icel. senda, Sw. sända, Dan. sende, Goth. sandjan, and to Goth. sinp a time (properly, a going), gasinpa companion, OHG. sind journey, AS. s&?;, Icel. sinni a walk, journey, a time. W. hynt a way, journey, OIr. s&?;t. Cf. Sense.] 1. To cause to go in any manner; to dispatch; to commission or direct to go; as, to send a messenger.

I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.

Jer. xxiii. 21.

I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.

John viii. 42.

Servants, sent on messages, stay out somewhat longer than the message requires.

Swift.

2. To give motion to; to cause to be borne or carried; to procure the going, transmission, or delivery of; as, to send a message.

He . . . sent letters by posts on horseback.

Esther viii. 10.

O send out thy light an thy truth; let them lead me.

Ps. xliii. 3.

3. To emit; to impel; to cast; to throw; to hurl; as, to send a ball, an arrow, or the like.

4. To cause to be or to happen; to bestow; to inflict; to grant; -- sometimes followed by a dependent proposition. "God send him well!" Shak.

The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke.

Deut. xxviii. 20.

And sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Matt. v. 45.

God send your mission may bring back peace.

Sir W. Scott.

Send (?), v. i. 1. To dispatch an agent or messenger to convey a message, or to do an errand.

See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away my head?

2 Kings vi. 32.

2. (Naut.) To pitch; as, the ship sends forward so violently as to endanger her masts. Totten.

To send for, to request or require by message to come or be brought.

Send, n. (Naut.) The impulse of a wave by which a vessel is carried bodily. [Written also scend.] W. C. Russell. "The send of the sea". Longfellow.

Sen"dal (?), n. [OF. cendal (cf. Pr. & Sp. cendal, It. zendale), LL. cendallum, Gr. &?;&?;&?; a fine Indian cloth.] A light thin stuff of silk. [Written also cendal, and sendal.] Chaucer.

Wore she not a veil of twisted sendal embroidered with silver?

Sir W. Scott.

Send"er (?), n. One who sends. Shak.

Sen"e*cas (?), n. pl.; sing. Seneca (&?;). (Ethnol.) A tribe of Indians who formerly inhabited a part of Western New York. This tribe was the most numerous and most warlike of the Five Nations.

Seneca grass(Bot.), holy grass. See under Holy. -- Seneca eil, petroleum or naphtha. -- Seneca root, or Seneca snakeroot (Bot.), the rootstock of an American species of milkworth (Polygala Senega) having an aromatic but bitter taste. It is often used medicinally as an expectorant and diuretic, and, in large doses, as an emetic and cathartic. [Written also Senega root, and Seneka root.]

||Se*ne"ci*o (?), n. [L., groundsel, lit., an old man. So called in ||allusion to the hoary appearance of the pappus.] (Bot.) A very large ||genus of composite plants including the groundsel and the golden ||ragwort.

Se*nec"ti*tude (?), n. [L. senectus aged, old age, senex old.] Old age. [R.] "Senectitude, weary of its toils." H. Miller.

Sen"e*ga (?), n. (Med.) Seneca root.

Sen"e*gal (?), n. Gum senegal. See under Gum.

Sen"e*gin (?), n. (Med. Chem.) A substance extracted from the rootstock of the Polygala Senega (Seneca root), and probably identical with polygalic acid.

Se*nes"cence (?), n. [See Senescent.] The state of growing old; decay by time.

Se*nes"cent (?), a. [L. senescent, p. pr. of senescere to grow old, incho. fr. senere to be old.] Growing old; decaying with the lapse of time. "The night was senescent." Poe. "With too senescent air." Lowell.

Sen"es*chal (?), n. [OF. seneschal, LL. seniscalcus, of Teutonic origin; cf. Goth. sineigs old, skalks, OHG. scalch, AS. scealc. Cf. Senior, Marshal.] An officer in the houses of princes and dignitaries, in the Middle Ages, who had the superintendence of feasts and domestic ceremonies; a steward. Sometimes the seneschal had the dispensing of justice, and was given high military commands.

Then marshaled feast Served up in hall with sewers and seneschale.

Milton.

Philip Augustus, by a famous ordinance in 1190, first established royal courts of justice, held by the officers called baitiffs, or seneschals, who acted as the king's lieutenants in his demains.

Hallam.

Sen"es*chal*ship, n. The office, dignity, or jurisdiction of a seneschal.

Senge (?), v. t. To singe. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Sen"green (?), n.[AS. singr&?;ne, properly, evergreen, fr. sin (in composition) always + grëne green; akin to OHG. sin- ever, L. semper.] (Bot.) The houseleek.

Se"nile (?), a. [L. senilis, from senex, gen. senis, old, an old man: cf. F. sénile. See Senior.] Of or pertaining to old age; proceeding from, or characteristic of, old age; affected with the infirmities of old age; as, senile weakness. "Senile maturity of judgment." Boyle.

Senile gangrene (Med.), a form of gangrene occuring particularly in old people, and caused usually by insufficient blood supply due to degeneration of the walls of the smaller arteries.

Se*nil"i*ty (?), n. [Cf. F. sénilité.] The quality or state of being senile; old age.

Sen"ior (?), a. [L. senior, compar. of senex, gen. senis, old. See Sir.] 1. More advanced than another in age; prior in age; elder; hence, more advanced in dignity, rank, or office; superior; as, senior member; senior counsel.

2. Belonging to the final year of the regular course in American colleges, or in professional schools.

Sen"ior, n. 1. A person who is older than another; one more advanced in life.

2. One older in office, or whose entrance upon office was anterior to that of another; one prior in grade.

3. An aged person; an older. Dryden.

Each village senior paused to scan, And speak the lovely caravan.

Emerson.

4. One in the fourth or final year of his collegiate course at an American college; -- originally called senior sophister; also, one in the last year of the course at a professional schools or at a seminary.

Sen*ior"i*ty (?), n. The quality or state of being senior.

Sen"ior*ize (?), v. i. To exercise authority; to rule; to lord it. [R.] Fairfax.

Sen"ior*y (?), n. Seniority. [Obs.] Shak.

Sen"na (?), n. [Cf. It. & Sp. sena, Pg. sene, F. séné; all fr. Ar. san.] 1. (Med.) The leaves of several leguminous plants of the genus Cassia. (C. acutifolia, C. angustifolia, etc.). They constitute a valuable but nauseous cathartic medicine.

2. (Bot.) The plants themselves, native to the East, but now cultivated largely in the south of Europe and in the West Indies.

Bladder senna. (Bot.) See under Bladder. -- Wild senna (Bot.), the Cassia Marilandica, growing in the United States, the leaves of which are used medicinally, like those of the officinal senna.

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Sen"na*chy (?), n. See Seannachie.

Sen"net (?), n. [Properly, a sign given for the entrance or exit of actors, from OF. sinet, signet, dim. of signe. See Signet.] A signal call on a trumpet or cornet for entrance or exit on the stage. [Obs.]

Sen"net, n. (Zoöl.) The barracuda.

Sen"night (?), n. [Contr. fr. sevennight.] The space of seven nights and days; a week. [Written also se'nnight.] [Archaic.] Shak. Tennyson.

Sen"nit (?), n. [Seven + knit.] 1. (Naut.) A braided cord or fabric formed by plaiting together rope yarns or other small stuff.

2. Plaited straw or palm leaves for making hats.

Se*noc"u*lar (?), a. [L. seni six each (fr. sex six) + oculus eye.] Having six eyes. [R.] Derham.

Se*no"ni*an (?), a. [F. sénonien, from the district of Sénonais, in France.] (Geol.) In european geology, a name given to the middle division of the Upper Cretaceous formation.

||Se*ñor" (?), n. [Sp. Cf. Senior.] A Spanish title of courtesy ||corresponding to the English Mr. or Sir; also, a gentleman.

||Se*ño"ra (?), n. [Sp.] A Spanish title of courtesy given to a lady; ||Mrs.; Madam; also, a lady.

||Se`ño*ri"ta (?), n. [Sp.] A Spanish title of courtesy given to a ||young lady; Miss; also, a young lady.

Sens (?), adv. [See Since.] Since. [Obs.] Spenser.

Sen"sate (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sensated (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Sensating.] [See Sensated.] To feel or apprehend more or less distinctly through a sense, or the senses; as, to sensate light, or an odor.

As those of the one are sensated by the ear, so those of the other are by the eye.

R. Hooke.

{ Sen"sate (?), Sen"sa*ted (?), } a. [L. sensatus gifted with sense, intelligent, fr. sensus sense. See Sense.] Felt or apprehended through a sense, or the senses. [R.] Baxter.

Sen*sa"tion (?), n. [Cf. F. sensation. See Sensate.] 1. (Physiol.) An impression, or the consciousness of an impression, made upon the central nervous organ, through the medium of a sensory or afferent nerve or one of the organs of sense; a feeling, or state of consciousness, whether agreeable or disagreeable, produced either by an external object (stimulus), or by some change in the internal state of the body.

Perception is only a special kind of knowledge, and sensation a special kind of feeling. . . . Knowledge and feeling, perception and sensation, though always coexistent, are always in the inverse ratio of each other.

Sir W. Hamilton.

2. A purely spiritual or psychical affection; agreeable or disagreeable feelings occasioned by objects that are not corporeal or material.

3. A state of excited interest or feeling, or that which causes it.

The sensation caused by the appearance of that work is still remembered by many.

Brougham.

Syn. -- Perception. -- Sensation, Perseption. The distinction between these words, when used in mental philosophy, may be thus stated; if I simply smell a rose, I have a sensation; if I refer that smell to the external object which occasioned it, I have a perception. Thus, the former is mere feeling, without the idea of an object; the latter is the mind's apprehension of some external object as occasioning that feeling. "Sensation properly expresses that change in the state of the mind which is produced by an impression upon an organ of sense (of which change we can conceive the mind to be conscious, without any knowledge of external objects). Perception, on the other hand, expresses the knowledge or the intimations we obtain by means of our sensations concerning the qualities of matter, and consequently involves, in every instance, the notion of externality, or outness, which it is necessary to exclude in order to seize the precise import of the word sensation." Fleming.

Sen*sa"tion*al (?), a. 1. Of or pertaining to sensation; as, sensational nerves.

2. Of or pertaining to sensationalism, or the doctrine that sensation is the sole origin of knowledge.

3. Suited or intended to excite temporarily great interest or emotion; melodramatic; emotional; as, sensational plays or novels; sensational preaching; sensational journalism; a sensational report.

Sen*sa"tion*al*ism (?), n. 1. (Metaph.) The doctrine held by Condillac, and by some ascribed to Locke, that our ideas originate solely in sensation, and consist of sensations transformed; sensualism; -- opposed to intuitionalism, and rationalism.

2. The practice or methods of sensational writing or speaking; as, the sensationalism of a novel.

Sen*sa"tion*al*ist, n. 1. (Metaph.) An advocate of, or believer in, philosophical sensationalism.

2. One who practices sensational writing or speaking.

Sense (sns), n. [L. sensus, from sentire, sensum, to perceive, to feel, from the same root as E. send; cf. OHG. sin sense, mind, sinnan to go, to journey, G. sinnen to meditate, to think: cf. F. sens. For the change of meaning cf. See, v. t. See Send, and cf. Assent, Consent, Scent, v. t., Sentence, Sentient.] 1. (Physiol.) A faculty, possessed by animals, of perceiving external objects by means of impressions made upon certain organs (sensory or sense organs) of the body, or of perceiving changes in the condition of the body; as, the senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. See Muscular sense, under Muscular, and Temperature sense, under Temperature.

Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep.

Shak.

What surmounts the reach Of human sense I shall delineate.

Milton.

The traitor Sense recalls The soaring soul from rest.

Keble.

2. Perception by the sensory organs of the body; sensation; sensibility; feeling.

In a living creature, though never so great, the sense and the affects of any one part of the body instantly make a transcursion through the whole.

Bacon.

3. Perception through the intellect; apprehension; recognition; understanding; discernment; appreciation.

This Basilius, having the quick sense of a lover.

Sir P. Sidney.

High disdain from sense of injured merit.

Milton.

4. Sound perception and reasoning; correct judgment; good mental capacity; understanding; also, that which is sound, true, or reasonable; rational meaning. "He speaks sense." Shak.

He raves; his words are loose As heaps of sand, and scattering wide from sense.

Dryden.

5. That which is felt or is held as a sentiment, view, or opinion; judgment; notion; opinion.

I speak my private but impartial sense With freedom.

Roscommon.

The municipal council of the city had ceased to speak the sense of the citizens.

Macaulay.

6. Meaning; import; signification; as, the true sense of words or phrases; the sense of a remark.

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense.

Neh. viii. 8.

I think 't was in another sense.

Shak.

7. Moral perception or appreciation.

Some are so hardened in wickedness as to have no sense of the most friendly offices.

L' Estrange.

8. (Geom.) One of two opposite directions in which a line, surface, or volume, may be supposed to be described by the motion of a point, line, or surface.

Common sense, according to Sir W. Hamilton: (a) "The complement of those cognitions or convictions which we receive from nature, which all men possess in common, and by which they test the truth of knowledge and the morality of actions." (b) "The faculty of first principles." These two are the philosophical significations. (c) "Such ordinary complement of intelligence, that,if a person be deficient therein, he is accounted mad or foolish." (d) When the substantive is emphasized: "Native practical intelligence, natural prudence, mother wit, tact in behavior, acuteness in the observation of character, in contrast to habits of acquired learning or of speculation." -- Moral sense. See under Moral, (a). -- The inner, or internal, sense, capacity of the mind to be aware of its own states; consciousness; reflection. "This source of ideas every man has wholly in himself, and though it be not sense, as having nothing to do with external objects, yet it is very like it, and might properly enough be called internal sense." Locke. -- Sense capsule (Anat.), one of the cartilaginous or bony cavities which inclose, more or less completely, the organs of smell, sight, and hearing. -- Sense organ (Physiol.), a specially irritable mechanism by which some one natural force or form of energy is enabled to excite sensory nerves; as the eye, ear, an end bulb or tactile corpuscle, etc. - - Sense organule (Anat.), one of the modified epithelial cells in or near which the fibers of the sensory nerves terminate.

Syn. -- Understanding; reason. -- Sense, Understanding, Reason. Some philosophers have given a technical signification to these terms, which may here be stated. Sense is the mind's acting in the direct cognition either of material objects or of its own mental states. In the first case it is called the outer, in the second the inner, sense. Understanding is the logical faculty, i. e., the power of apprehending under general conceptions, or the power of classifying, arranging, and making deductions. Reason is the power of apprehending those first or fundamental truths or principles which are the conditions of all real and scientific knowledge, and which control the mind in all its processes of investigation and deduction. These distinctions are given, not as established, but simply because they often occur in writers of the present day.

Sense (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sensed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Sensing.] To perceive by the senses; to recognize. [Obs. or Colloq.]

Is he sure that objects are not otherwise sensed by others than they are by him?

Glanvill.

Sense"ful (?), a. Full of sense, meaning, or reason; reasonable; judicious. [R.] "Senseful speech." Spenser. "Men, otherwise senseful and ingenious." Norris.

Sense"less, a. Destitute of, deficient in, or contrary to, sense; without sensibility or feeling; unconscious; stupid; foolish; unwise; unreasonable.

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things.

Shak.

The ears are senseless that should give us hearing.

Shak.

The senseless grave feels not your pious sorrows.

Rowe.

They were a senseless, stupid race.

Swift.

They would repent this their senseless perverseness when it would be too late.

Clarendon.

--- Sense"less*ly, adv. -- Sense"less*ness, n.

Sen`si*bil"i*ty (?), n.; pl. Sensibilities (#). [Cf. F. sensibilité, LL. sensibilitas.] 1. (Physiol.) The quality or state of being sensible, or capable of sensation; capacity to feel or perceive.

2. The capacity of emotion or feeling, as distinguished from the intellect and the will; peculiar susceptibility of impression, pleasurable or painful; delicacy of feeling; quick emotion or sympathy; as, sensibility to pleasure or pain; sensibility to shame or praise; exquisite sensibility; - - often used in the plural. "Sensibilities so fine!" Cowper.

The true lawgiver ought to have a heart full of sensibility.

Burke.

His sensibilities seem rather to have been those of patriotism than of wounded pride.

Marshall.

3. Experience of sensation; actual feeling.

This adds greatly to my sensibility.

Burke.

4. That quality of an instrument which makes it indicate very slight changes of condition; delicacy; as, the sensibility of a balance, or of a thermometer.

Syn. -- Taste; susceptibility; feeling. See Taste.

Sen"si*ble (?), a. [F., fr. L. sensibilis, fr. sensus sense.] 1. Capable of being perceived by the senses; apprehensible through the bodily organs; hence, also, perceptible to the mind; making an impression upon the sense, reason, or understanding; &?;&?;&?;&?;&?;&?; heat; sensible resistance.

Air is sensible to the touch by its motion.

Arbuthnot.

The disgrace was more sensible than the pain.

Sir W. Temple.

Any very sensible effect upon the prices of things.

A. Smith.

2. Having the capacity of receiving impressions from external objects; capable of perceiving by the instrumentality of the proper organs; liable to be affected physsically or mentally; impressible.

Would your cambric were sensible as your finger.

Shak.

3. Hence: Liable to impression from without; easily affected; having nice perception or acute feeling; sensitive; also, readily moved or affected by natural agents; delicate; as, a sensible thermometer. "With affection wondrous sensible." Shak.

4. Perceiving or having perception, either by the senses or the mind; cognizant; perceiving so clearly as to be convinced; satisfied; persuaded.

He [man] can not think at any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it.

Locke.

They are now sensible it would have been better to comply than to refuse.

Addison.

5. Having moral perception; capable of being affected by moral good or evil.

6. Possessing or containing sense or reason; giftedwith, or characterized by, good or common sense; intelligent; wise.

Now a sensible man, by and by a fool.

Shak.

Sensible note or tone (Mus.), the major seventh note of any scale; -- so called because, being but a half step below the octave, or key tone, and naturally leading up to that, it makes the ear sensible of its approaching sound. Called also the leading tone. -- Sensible horizon. See Horizon, n., 2. (a).

Syn. -- Intelligent; wise. -- Sensible, Intelligent. We call a man sensible whose judgments and conduct are marked and governed by sound judgment or good common semse. We call one intelligent who is quick and clear in his understanding, i. e., who discriminates readily and nicely in respect to difficult and important distinction. The sphere of the sensible man lies in matters of practical concern; of the intelligent man, in subjects of intellectual interest. "I have been tired with accounts from sensible men, furnished with matters of fact which have happened within their own knowledge." Addison. "Trace out numerous footsteps . . . of a most wise and intelligent architect throughout all this stupendous fabric." Woodward.

Sen"si*ble (?), n. 1. Sensation; sensibility. [R.] "Our temper changed . . . which must needs remove the sensible of pain." Milton.

2. That which impresses itself on the sense; anything perceptible.

Aristotle distinguished sensibles into common and proper.

Krauth-Fleming.

3. That which has sensibility; a sensitive being. [R.]

This melancholy extends itself not to men only, but even to vegetals and sensibles.

Burton.

Sen"si*ble*ness, n. 1. The quality or state of being sensible; sensibility; appreciation; capacity of perception; susceptibility. "The sensibleness of the eye." Sharp. "Sensibleness and sorrow for sin." Hammond.

The sensibleness of the divine presence.

Hallywell.

2. Intelligence; reasonableness; good sense.