A Dictionary of Cont..

the Post Obce as a mail carrier and drove u
dry cleaning truck on the side).
In American cities side is used to deslzribe
regions with reference to a central space. New
Y&k, for example, has its East Side, Chicago its
Near North Side. West Side. South Side. and
so on. This practice is not “niGersal and unvarying,
however, though in many smaller towns,
until quite recently, the railroad tracks served
as a line of social demarcation and to come
from the wrong side of the tracks meant to
have had an unfortunate and undesirable social
background. In London, end is the equiv,alent
term; the West End refers to the fashionable
section, the East End to a working-class area.
Sideburns, a name for a special arrangement
of the whiskers worn with an unbearded
chin, is an exclusively American term. The
fashion was named after General Ambrose.
Bumside, a Union general in the Civil War. The
English word for whiskers so worn is dundrearies,
named after a comic character, :Lord
Dundreary, in Tom Taylor’s Our American
Cousin. In American equestrian circles, a sidecheck
is what the English call a bearing-rein,
a checkrein carried at the side of a horse’s
head. Both English and Americans use the term
side-step meaning to step, or avoid by stepping,
to one side. In England the term is most often
used in accounts of Rugby football. In America
the term is most often used figuratively, meaning
to evade, as decisions, problems (Each
party sidestepped certain issues in the interest
of unity). Sideswipe is an American term mleaning
to strike with a sweeping stroke or blow
with or along the side. In its commonest use it
describes a malpractice of reckless motorists.
American sidewalk designates a walk, especially
a paved one, at the side of a street or road.
The equivalent English term is pavement.
American side-wheeler, describing a vessel with
a uaddle wheel on each side. is in England a
paddle-boat.
side of the angels. It was Disraeli, in a speech
at the Oxford Diocesan Conference in 1864.
who first announced that he was on the side oi
the angels. By this he meant, as he said, that
in the controversy then raging over organic
evolution he was with those who believed that
man was not related to the apes but to the
angels. The phrase became immediately and
immensely popular and passed into use as a
way of saying that one took a spiritual ,view
of matters. In modem use it frequently means
nothing more than that the person spoken of
is on our side in some controversy.
sideways; sidewise. These forms are equally
acceptable.
sight; spectacle. A spectacle is, in its basic scmes,
anything presented to the sight or view, especially
something of striking kind; a public
show or display, especially on a large scale (The
fireworks provided a magnificent spectacle). A
sight may be anything seen or to be se-en. It is
often derogatory, in a light humorous way
(That child was a sight! You never saw so much
signature
mud on a human being! She was a sight in
that new hut). Where spectacle is used in this
sense, there is a subtle difference; one who is a
sight, is usually ludicrous and to be pitied; one
who is a spectacle or, more often, makes a
spectacle of himself, is obnoxiously showy and
to be resented. When one sees the sights of a
town he may be seeing spectacles, but more
often he is only seeing the most interesting
things that particular town can present to his
sight.
sight for sore eyes. As a hearty hyperbole of
delight at seeing someone, the assurance that
they are a sight for sore eyes is a clich6, forgiveable,
however, in its homely exuberance and
genuine good nature. The meaning is “the sight
of you is so pleasant that it would heal sore
eyes.”
sight unseen is used in America and in some
English dialects of things which are bought
without previous inspection, without, indeed,
even being seen (Many people lost money in
the Florida boom because they bought lots sight
unseen and found that they had to remain
unseen because they were under several feet of
brackish water).
signal; single. These words sound nearly alike,
and sometimes seem to mean the same thing;
yet they must be differentiated. One singles
someone out of a group when one pays or
wishes to pay him some special attention, an
attention due to this one, single person. It is
conceivable that one could signal someone out
of a group by making signals to him that would
induce him to leave the group, but this use of
signal is very rare and would almost have to be
contrived. The confusion caused by the similarity
of the two words’ sound is heightened by
the fact that signal as an adjective can mean
conspicuous or notable, and one singled out
is almost always conspicuous and if singled out
by the right person under the right circumstances
can be notable.
signature; autograph. A signature is a person’s
name, or a mark representing it, as signed or
written by himself or deputy, as in subscribing
a letter or other document (An illegible signature
seems the mark of a great executive). A
man’s signature may be written by himself or
may be reproduced by engraving or by a mechanical
device that makes it possible for him
in writing his signature once to affix it at the
same time to many similar documents, checks,
or the like. An autograph is a person’s own
signature in his own handwriting, but with the
growing custom of seeking the autographs of
celebrities, the growth of fan clubs, press agents,
autograph books, and so on, the word is coming
to mean chiefly the signature of someone of
distinction (or someone thought to be of distinction
or who hopes to be of distinction or
was of distinction) for an admirer. And among
those who write autographs there is a distinction
between an uutograph and a signature.
Many of those who are asked for autographs
are known to the public by a professional name,