Pop Quiz! S vocabulary.

Words beginning with S encountered online.  There are some very strange words that no sensible person is expected to know. These crazy words were actually used to convey points of view, often polemically. By journalists and by lawyers and other unnatural types. While on the other hand there are also a few common words everyone does know and uses in everyday speech. I don't know why they have cards made for them. They are not unusual at all. Words like saturnine, sclerotic, seraglio, sine qua non, soporific, staccato, stipulate, sycophantic, synecdoche, and synod. Maybe I went brain dead that day. Maybe I was due for another transfusion and not getting proper oxygen to my brain. Maybe I was sleep-reading. Maybe marijuana smoke wafted up from a lower floor and affected my senses. Maybe I simply forgot. Who knows? Don't feel bad if you don't recognize them because honestly, they're whacked, and so are the people who used them. In fact, you'll see there is even an S word for that, for people who use words that are whacked when regular words will do. Sesquipedalianism, don't ever use that word, or you'll be guilty of the offense it describes. There are 130 whacked mostly unusable words. Here goes.

* sacralising: imbue with or treat as having a sacred character or quality.
"rural images that sacralize country life"

* Salafism: 1. Salafism - a militant group of extremist Sunnis who believe themselves the only correct interpreters of the Koran and consider moderate Muslims to be infidels; seek to convert all Muslims and to insure that its own fundamentalist version of Islam will dominate the world

* Salus populi suprema lex esto: (Latin "The health of the people should be the supreme law," "Let the good of the people be the supreme law" or "The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law")

* Samite: was a luxurious and heavy silk fabric worn in the Middle Ages, of a twill-type weave, often including gold or silver thread. The word was derived from Old French samit, from medieval Latin samitum, examitum deriving from the Byzantine Greek ἑξάμιτον hexamiton "six threads", usually interpreted as indicating the use of six yarns in the warp.Samite is still used in ecclesiastical robes, vestments, ornamental fabrics, and interior decoration.Structurally, samite is a weft-faced compound twill, plain or figured (patterned), in which the main warp threads are hidden on both sides of the fabric by the the floats of the ground and patterning wefts, with only the binding warps visible.By the later medieval period, the term samite was applied to any rich, heavy silk material which had a satin-like gloss,indeed "satin" began as a term for lustrous samite.

* Samizdat: a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader. This grassroots practice to evade officially-imposed censorship was fraught with danger as harsh punishments were meted out to people caught possessing or copying censored materials.

Vladimir Bukovsky defined it as follows:

"(...) I myself create it,
edit it,
censor it,
publish it,
distribute it, and ...
get imprisoned for it. (...)"[1]

* Sans Souci: The Sanssouci Palace (German: Schloss Sanssouci) is the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, in Potsdam, near Berlin. It is often

* sas: Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces regiment within the British Army which has served as a model for the special forces of other countries.[2][3] The SAS forms a significant section of United Kingdom Special Forces alongside the Special Boat Service (SBS), Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR), and the Special Forces Support Group (SFSG). The SAS gained fame and recognition world wide after the Iranian Embassy Storming (or Operation Nimrod) in 1980 which was one of the first of its kind and was broadcast live all over the globe.[4]The Special Air Service is divided into two distinct parts: the 22 Regiment Special Air Service, the regular regiment of the SAS, which is the unit associated with most well-known SAS operations; and two Territorial Army units: the 21 Regiment Special Air Service and 23 Regiment Special Air Service.

* satori: Satori (悟り ?) (Chinese: 悟; pinyin: wù; Korean: 오 o; Vietnamese: ngộ) is a Japanese Buddhist term for awakening, "comprehension; understanding". It is derived from the Japanese verb satoru. In the Zen Buddhist tradition, satori refers to the experience of kenshō, "seeing into one's true nature".

* saturnine: (of a person or their manner) slow and gloomy."a saturnine temperament"

* sauve qui peut: every man for himself or we’re doomed

That's it for the "Sa... " words.





* scabrous: Rough and covered with, or as if with, scabs, Indecent; salacious: "scabrous publications”, rough - coarse - rugged - harsh

* scansion:The action of scanning a line of verse to determine its rhythm. The rhythm of a line of verse.

* schmekel: A penis , diminutive for of the Yiddish schmuck . See penis for synonyms. A stupid person.

* Schwerpunkt: (focal point).

* scienter: legal term that refers to intent or knowledge of wrongdoing. This means that an offending party has knowledge of the "wrongness" of an act or event prior to committing it.

* sclerotic: sclerosis - any pathological hardening or thickening of tissue, refers to the stiffening of a structure.  A hardening within the nervous system, especially of the brain and spinal cord, resulting from degeneration of nervous elements such as the myelin sheath.

* scotoma: an area of impaired or lost vision within a field of vision otherwise in a good (or at least a better) state

* scrannel: thin or slight. squeaky or unmelodious. Cedar waxwings emit a scrannel falsetto, a high-pitched shree

* scrivener: copyist: someone employed to make written copies of documents and manuscripts, a word processing program designed for writers. Scrivener contains a document, note and metadata managing system allowing the user to keep track of notes, concepts, research and whole documents for reference (documents including text, images, PDF, audio, video, web pages, etc.).  (or scribe) was traditionally a person who could read and write. This usually indicated secretarial and administrative duties such as dictation and keeping business, judicial, and history records for kings, nobles, temples, and cities.

* secant: MATHEMATICS the ratio of the hypotenuse to the shorter side adjacent to an acute angle (in a right-angled triangle); the reciprocal of a cosine. GEOMETRY
a straight line that cuts a curve in two or more parts.

* secaueurs: (Engineering / Tools) Chiefly Brit a small pair of shears for pruning, having a pair of pivoted handles, sprung so that they are normally open, and usually a single ...

* sedulous: flatly unsustainable in the face of sedulous investigation
(of a person or action) showing dedication and diligence."he watched himself with the most sedulous care" diligent, careful, meticulous, thorough, assiduous, attentive, industrious, conscientious, ultracareful, punctilious, scrupulous, painstaking, minute, rigorous, particular

* seigniorage: The price spread between face value and commodity value is called seigniorage.

* Semiotics: (also called semiotic studies; its Saussurean tradition is called semiology) is the study of meaning-making, the study of signs and symbols. This includes the study of signs and sign processes (semiosis), indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication. Semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which, for its part, studies the structure and meaning of language more specifically. As different from linguistics, however, semiotics also studies non-linguistic sign systems. Semiotics often is divided into three branches:Semantics: relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their denotata, or meaning, Syntactics: relations among signs in formal structures. Pragmatics: relation between signs and sign-using agents

* senescence: the state of being old : the process of becoming old,  the biological changes which take place in organisms as they age. It encompasses all of the biological processes of a living ...

* sententious: Adjective:
Given to moralizing in a pompous or affected manner. abounding in or given to pompous or aphoristic moralizing; "too often the significant episode deteriorates into sententious conversation"- Kathleen Barnesd, Self-righteousness (also called sententiousness, holier-than-thou) is a feeling of smug moral superiority derived from a sense that one's beliefs, actions, or affiliations are of greater virtue than those of the average person.

* sephora:  a chain of Cosmetics stores founded in France in 1969 and acquired by Paris-based conglomerate LVMH in 1997

* seraglio: the women's apartments (harem) in an Ottoman palace. the women inhabiting a seraglio or harem.

* serried: to crowd closely together. In close or compact formation: serried ranks of troops

* sesquicentennial: the 150th anniversary (or the celebration of it) An anniversary (from the Latin anniversarius, from the words for year and to turn, meaning (re)turning yearly; known in English since c. 1230) is a day that commemorates and/or celebrates a past event that occurred on the same day of the year as the initial event. ...

* sesquipedalianism:  (using “large words when smaller ones will do,”) Cavett romps and stomps over his subjects in a veritable malign-fest of the linguistically misguided.
-- Susie Berta, Susie's Year of Words - 2008 (Blog) , April 14, 2008 It is very true that when the experiment of dictating is first tried, the luxury of the ease it gives is apt to be so great, that it tends to looseness and verbosity of style; for there is no better check on sesquipedalianism  than the necessity of writing down one's sesquipedalian words for one's self.

* sett: the lair or burrow of a badger. The particular pattern of stripes in a tartan.

* shaggy dog story:  an extremely long-winded tale featuring extensive narration of typically irrelevant incidents, usually resulting in a pointless or absurd punchline. These stories are a special case of yarns, coming from the long tradition of campfire yarns.  Stories play upon the audience's preconceptions of the art of joke telling. The audience listens to the story with certain expectations, which are either simply not met or met in some entirely unexpected manner.

* shanda: A shame, a scandal. The expression "a shanda fur die goy" means to do something embarrassing to Jews where non-Jews can observe it.

* shandy: beer mixed with a soft drink, such as carbonated lemonade, ginger beer, ginger ale, or apple juice or orange juice.  “That first swig of shandy after cutting the lawn.”

* Shareef:  Urban dictionary: After the Ayatollah Khomeini started ruling Iran, one of the first things he did was to ban rock 'n' roll since he considered it a bad and corruptive influence. The Clash wrote "Rock The Casbah" in response. So "Shareef" was the Ayatollah, even though that wasn't his real first name. There's a computer-generated Shareef head in the cafe in Back To The Future II.

* shofar: a horn, traditionally that of a ram, used for Jewish religious purposes. Shofar-blowing is incorporated in synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

* shul: A synagogue (from Greek: συναγωγή, transliterated synagogē, "assembly"; בית כנסת beyt knesset, "house of assembly"; שול or בית תפילה beyt t'fila, "house of prayer", shul; אסנוגה, esnoga) is a Jewish house of prayer.

* sigil: an inscribed or painted symbol considered to have magical power, a seal."the supply wains bore the High King's sigil"literary a sign or symbol.

* SIGINT: Signals Intelligence, acronym that military types enjoy so well to demonstrate their military street cred while shortening its meaning a mere four syllables, vrs.  HUMINT, self explanatory.

* Silviculture: the practice of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests to meet diverse needs and values. The name comes from the Latin silvi- (forest) + culture (as in growing).

* sinat chinam: groundless hatred.  Good cheer and humor have slowly faded and now these are the days of knives and sinat chinam.

* Sine Die: (from the Latin "without day") means "without assigning a day for a further meeting or hearing"[1] to adjourn an assembly sine die is to adjourn it for an indefinite period. A legislative body adjourns sine die when it adjourns without appointing a day on which to appear or assemble again. It can be used in reference to legislatures whose terms or mandates are coming to an end, and it is anticipated that this particular body will not meet again.[3] A legislative body adjourned in this way may be called back into special session, a reason why sine die adjournment rather than dissolution may be preferred in some cases.

* sine qua non:  or conditio sine qua non (plural: sine quibus non) refers to an indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient. It was originally a Latin legal term for "(a condition) without which it could not be" or "but for..." or "without which (there is) nothing."

* sirroco: A hot humid south or southeast wind of southern Italy, Sicily, and the Mediterranean islands, originating in the Sahara Desert as a dry dusty wind but becoming moist as it passes over the Mediterranean. A hot or warm southerly wind, especially one moving toward a low barometric pressure center.

* sisu: A Finnish term loosely translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. However, the word is widely considered to lack a proper translation into any language. Sisu has been described as being integral to understanding Finnish culture. The literal meaning is equivalent in English to "having guts", and the word derives from sisus, which means something inner or interior. However sisu is defined by a long-term element in it; it is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain an action against the odds. Deciding on a course of action and the sticking to that decision against repeated failures is sisu. The noun sisu is related to the adjective sisukas, one having the quality of sisu.

* sitrep: short for "Situation Report" Meaning something that you give over the radio to your superiors, always includes, but not limited to, Who, What, When, Where and Why...For Example...2 machine guns, 2205, at 3 o'clock(north always being 12), firing from the water tower.

* sitzfleisch: The ability to endure or carry on with an activity. ability to sit still, Sitzfleisch From German Sitzfleisch, from sitzen (“to sit”) + Fleisch (“flesh”).

* skeeve: Something that makes one feel uncomfortable or grossed out. There's a lot of weird hang-ups around masculinity that often boils down to any sort of male intimacy or vulnerability [in fiction] being read as "gay." That's a whole other kettle of fish that I won't get into here, but basically, people insisting their slash is real tends to tell me more about the fan than the creator. Plus you have all the additional skeeve of the phenomenon I mentioned earlier. 
Last edited on Dec 18 2013. Submitted by Dr.Whom from Philadelphia, PA, USA on Dec 18 2013.

* skell: vagrant, homeless, derelict.

* Skeuomorph: a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues to a structure that was necessary in the original.Skeuomorphs may be deliberately employed to make the new look comfortably old and familiar, such as copper cladding on zinc pennies or computer printed postage with a circular town name and cancellation lines.  "an element of design or structure that serves little or no purpose in the artifact fashioned from the new material but was essential to the object made from the original material".[4] This definition is narrower in scope and ties skeuomorphs to changes in materials.

* skewbald:  a color pattern of horse. A skewbald horse has a coat made up of chestnut (or any color besides black) and white patches, on top of either pink or dark skin. Other than colour, it is similar in appearance to the piebald pattern. Some animals also exhibit colouration of the irises of the eye that match the surrounding skin (blue eyes for white skin, brown for dark). The underlying genetic cause is related to a condition known as leucism.

* skive: An evasion of one's tasks, a period of shirking.
Verb. To evade doing one's work or duties, to truant. E.g."Every Friday afternoon you can guarantee he'll be skiving and getting drunk down the pub." And then get on with watching the shop and having a bit of skive, as you do when you are a 20somehting just out of Uni type.

* skrillex: Music Produce, Tattoos, piercings, skrillex haircuts, one night stands, double digit abortions, and neon hair dying are all on the rise. Head shaved on one side hair long and straight on the other side and back. Broad rimmed glasses, plaid shirt, lip piercings.

* skulking: Keep out of sight, typically with a sinister or cowardly motive. Move stealthily or furtively.

* slangwhanger: a partisan speechmaker

* slattern:  sloppy woman

* slumgullion: something disgusting

* smash cut:  a technique in film and other moving visual media where one scene abruptly cuts to another without transition, usually meant to startle the audience. To this end, the smash cut usually occurs at a crucial moment in a scene where a cut would not be expected. To heighten the impact of the cut, a disparity in the type of scene on either side of the cut is often present, going from a fast-paced frenzied scene to a tranquil one, or going from a tense scene to a pleasant one, for example. Sometimes it is also used to transition from the more peaceful scene.

* snollygoster: a political jobseeker

* snowclone:  a type of cliché and phrasal template originally defined as "a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different variants". An example of a snowclone is "X is the new black", itself a version of the expression "X is the new Y". X and Y may be replaced with different words or phrases – for example, "comedy is the new rock 'n' roll".[1] Both the generic formula and the new phrases produced from it are called "snowclones". It emphasizes the use of a familiar (and often particular) formula and previous cultural knowledge of the reader to express information about an idea. The idea being discussed may be different in meaning from the original formula, but can be understood using the same trope as the original formulation.

* sockdolager: a decisive blow'--one, in the slang language, 'capable of setting a man thinking.'" It also could mean something or someone big. "There is but one 'sogdollager' in the universe," James Fenimore Cooper wrote in 1838, "and that is in Lake Oswego."

* Soi pissant: pissing oneself

* soi-dissant: so-called; self-styled [literally: calling oneself]

* Solanaceae: tomato potato

* solecism: a nonstandard or ungrammatical usage, as unflammable  and they was. a breach of good manners or etiquette. Any error, impropriety, or inconsistency. a city in Cilicia where a corrupt form of Attic Greek was spoken. a phrase which trespasses grammatical boundaries. The word was originally used by the Greeks for what they perceived as. An ungrammatical combination of words in a sentence; also : a minor blunder in speech. something deviating from the proper, normal, or accepted order.

* Solipsism: he philosophical idea that one's own mind is all that exists. Solipsism is an epistemological or ontological position that knowledge of anything outside the mind is unjustified. The external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist. In the history of philosophy, solipsism has served as a skeptical hypothesis.

* sophont: in·tel·li·gence (n-tl-jns) The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge, especially toward a purposeful goal. An individual's relative standing on two quantitative indices, namely measured intelligence, as expressed by an intelligence quotient, and effectiveness of adaptive behavior.

* soporific: sleep inducing

soporifics: a drug or other agent that induces sleep.

* Sorelian myth: Gelrges Sorel French socialist theorist from first half of 20th century compared socialists to Christians who await the second coming with nothing dissuading either group from their collective myth.

* soteriology: the branch of Christian theology that deals with salvation as the effect of a divine agency.  deals with salvation. It is derived from the Greek sōtērion "salvation" (from sōtēr "savior, preserver") + logos (word)]. The term itself can be used to refer to any kind of religion, and no savior figure or figures are required.

* soul glow: Hair grease for black people. I wouldn't travel to Europe if you carried me in like a king and threw beautiful women at me. Now, now.  What if I include rose petals..  And maybe some soul glow?

* soupçon: touch: a slight but appreciable amount; "this dish could use a touch of garlic"  A very small amount; a hint; a trace. (also known as Death on the Staircase and The Staircase) is a 2004 mini-series by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade documenting the trial of ...

* Souq: an open-air marketplace or commercial quarter in Western Asian and North African cities.[1][2] The equivalent Persian term is "bazaar".

* Soviet propaganda canons: 1. Always make the State and its political leadership appear infallible. 2. Promote the State’s ideology and official policies wherever possible. 2. Demonize political adversaries and dissidents as enemies of the State. 4. Suppress news that reflects poorly on the State or its leadership. 5.If bad news cannot be suppressed, attack and discredit the source.

* spandrel: The roughly triangular space between the left or right exterior curve of an arch and the rectangular framework surrounding it.
The space between two arches and a horizontal molding or cornice above them.

* spanish swears: Pinche gringo culero ve a chingar a tu reputisima madre! (Fucking gringo asshole go fuck your loosecunt cocksucking mother!)

* spatchcock: backbone removed, chicken splayed

* sphygmomanometer: an instrument, often attached to an inflatable air-bladder cuff and used with a stethoscope, for measuring blood pressure in an artery.

* spiv: a British word for a particular kind of petty criminal, who deals in stolen or black market goods of questionable authenticity, especially a slickly-dressed man offering goods at bargain prices. The goods are generally not what they seem or have been obtained illegally. It was particularly used during the Second World War and in the Post-War rationing period for black-market dealers.

* spoilation: the action of ruining or destroying something."the spoliation of the countryside”, the action of taking goods or property from somewhere by illegal or unethical means."the spoliation of the Church”, the intentional, reckless, or negligent withholding, hiding, altering, fabricating, or destroying of evidence relevant to a legal proceeding.[1] Spoliation has two possible consequences: in jurisdictions where it is the (intentional) act is criminal by statute, it may result in fines and incarceration (if convicted in a separate criminal proceeding) for the parties who engaged in the spoliation; in jurisdictions where relevant case law precedent has been established, proceedings possibly altered by spoliation may be interpreted under a spoliation inference, or by other corrective measures, depending on the jurisdiction.

* Sprague-Dawley rats: an outbred multipurpose breed of albino rat used extensively in medical research. Its main advantage is its calmness and ease of handling. This breed of rat was first produced by the Sprague Dawley farms (later to become the Sprague Dawley Animal Company) in Madison, Wisconsin. The breeding facilities were purchased first by Gibco and then by Harlan (now Harlan Sprague Dawley) in January 1980.

* Sprezzatura: an Italian word originating from Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, where it is defined by the author as "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it". It is the ability of the courtier to display "an easy facility in accomplishing difficult actions which hides the conscious effort that went into them". Sprezzatura has also been described "as a form of defensive irony: the ability to disguise what one really desires, feels, thinks, and means or intends behind a mask of apparent reticence and nonchalance".

* sprogs: little kid, small child Loads of adverts use laughing babies to hook us in. It's something in our genes, probably; happy sprogs make us happy too. What they don't show is the out-takes where they stare in terror like they've seen whatever the baby version of James Corden is.


* squat cobbler: Better Call Saul. the Hoboken squat cobbler. He spins his tale of wealthy elderly reclusive patrons willing to pay big bucks for “ squat cobbler,” videos of bare asses in pies and pastries.

* St. Vitus’s dance: a disorder characterized by rapid, uncoordinated jerking movements primarily affecting the face, hands and feet. Sydenham's chorea results from childhood infection with Group A beta-haemolytic Streptococcus, And is reported to occur in 20–30% of patients with acute rheumatic fever. The Giffords shooting sent the media elite in this country into a bout of St. Vitus’s dance that would have warranted an army of exorcists in previous ages.

* staccato: A note having very short duration.

* stadial: a period of colder temperatures during the warm period separating the glacial periods of an ice age, of insufficient duration or intensity to be considered a glaciation, or glacial period. Notable stadials include the Older and Younger Dryas events and the Little Ice Age. An interstadial is a warmer period during a glaciation of insufficient duration or intensity to be considered an interglacial. Generally, interstadials endure for less than ten thousand years, interglacials for more than ten thousand. The Eemian Stage, which lasted from c. 130 to 75 thousand years ago [114,000 years ago, per the article Eemian_Stage], was the last interglacial prior to the present Holocene epoch. The Bølling Oscillation and the Allerød Oscillation, where they are not clearly distinguished in stratigraphic evidence, are taken together to form the Bølling/Allerød interstadial, which ran from c. 14,700 to 12,700 years before the present. During the hundred thousand years of the most recent ice age (the Wisconsin glaciation), Greenland ice cores show 24 interstadials,[2] called Dansgaard-Oeschger events; they have been most extensively studied, and sometimes named (the Brorup interstadial, the Odderade, Oerel, Glinde, Hengelo, Denekamp, etc.) in their northern European contexts.

* stanine: a method of scaling test scores on a nine-point standard scale with a mean of five (5) and a standard deviation of two.  A system of ranking test scores by dividing the normal distribution of scores into nine equal intervals, each half a standard deviation wide. ... A score on a normalized standardized test that indicates a student's rank in comparison with other students who took the same test. Stanine scores range from 1 to 9 and indicate a student's performance level. ...

* Stare decisis: a legal principle by which judges are obliged to respect the precedents established by prior decisions. The words originate from the phrasing of the principle in the Latin maxim Stare decisis et non quieta movere: "to stand by decisions and not disturb the undisturbed."[1] In a legal context, this is understood to mean that courts should generally abide by precedents and not disturb settled matters. This doctrine requires a Court to follow rules established by a superior court. The doctrine that holdings have binding precedence value is not valid within most civil law jurisdictions as it is generally understood that this principle interferes with the right of judges to interpret law and the right of the legislature to make law.[citation needed] Most such systems, however, recognize the concept of jurisprudence constante, which argues that even though judges are independent, they should judge in a predictable and non-chaotic manner. Therefore, judges' right to interpret law does not preclude the adoption of a small number of selected binding case laws.

* steatopygous: An extreme accumulation of fat on the buttocks. This development constitutes a genetic characteristic of the Khoisan. It is especially prevalent in women, but also occurs to a lesser degree in men. In most populations of Homo sapiens, females tend to exhibit a greater propensity to adipose tissue accumulation in the buttock region as compared with males. It has also been observed among the Pygmies of Central Africa and the Onge-tribe of the Andaman Islands. Among the Khoisan, it is regarded as a sign of beauty: it begins in infancy and is fully developed by the time of the first pregnancy. It is often accompanied by the formation known as elongated labia (labia minora that may extend as much as 4 inches outside the vulva). This was historically known as the "hottentot apron" — now deemed a very offensive term. Steatopygia would seem to have been a characteristic of a population which once extended from the Gulf of Aden to the Cape of Good Hope, of which stock Khoisan and Pygmies are remnants. While the Khoisan afford the most noticeable examples of its development, it occurs in other parts of Africa, and occurs even more frequently among male Basters than among Khoikhoi women.

* stipulate: to make an express demand or arrangement as a condition of agreement, to require as an essential condition in making an agreement: Total disarmament was stipulated in the peace treaty. Law . to accept (a proposition) without requiring that it be established by proof: to stipulate the existence of certain facts or that an expert witness is qualified.

* stochastic: In probability theory, a purely stochastic system is one whose state is non-deterministic (i.e., "random") so that the subsequent state of the system is determined probabilistically. Any system or process that must be analyzed using probability theory is stochastic at least in part.[1][2] Stochastic systems and processes play a fundamental role in mathematical models of phenomena in many fields of science, engineering, and economics.
Stochastic comes from the Greek word στόχος, which means "aim". It also denotes a target stick; the pattern of arrows around a target stick stuck in a hillside is representative of what is stochastic.

* strapline: a subheading in a newspaper or magazine article or in any advertisement

* strepitus: The strepitus (Latin for "great noise"), made by slamming a book shut, banging a hymnal or breviary against the pew, or stomping on the floor, symbolizes the earthquake that followed Christ's death, although it may have originated as a simple signal to depart.[3] After the candle has been shown to the people, it is extinguished, and then put "on the credence table," or simply taken to the sacristy. All rise and then leave in silence.(Adrian Fortescue, The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, 1917, page 288).

* stroppy: Easily offended or annoyed; ill-tempered or belligerent.

* Strunklemiss:

I menaced her in the forelunch Moone
A vostly chorminy dasoot
The Trowers blumding overgloon
and yestrain pudlesking defloot.

Her briar was shlength her freeth bunwhit
From confust I knewfel we glonged
Bespite her cynewquit charwit
My lungartwix belayed and bronged

Affond we pridled unbeforce
But by the tintlight of the boron
When I beaked her for coffeecourse
She repulsied: "you trilly doon!"

I could not compresnatch her by
I attempted another ifs
But she candicfy slurned away
and with a sniff said: "Strunklemiss!"

I menaced her in the forelunch Moone:
A vostly chorminy dasoot,
The Trowers blumding overgloon
and yestrain pudlesking defloot.


Glossary:
Menced - met by chance
Forelunch - any time of the day before lunch
Moone - that gray area between morning and noon typically observed among people who've been out partying the night before
Vostly - very and mostly
Chorminy - charming and ominous, or charmingly ominous
Dasoot - day when the sky is the color of soot
Trowers - tree flowers
Blumding - between blooming and budding
Overgloon - overhead, beyond the point where you can comfortably look up without losing your hat.
Yestrain - yesterday's rain
Pudlesking - soaking the ground and creating puddles
Derfloot - under the flooded boot
Brair - braided hair
Shlength- shoulder length
Freeth - front two teeth
Bunwhit - bunny-like and white; usually used to describe freeth
Confurst - first conversation
Knewfel - knew and felt, or feeling that one knows
Glonged - got along and belonged together
Bespite - because or in spite of
Cynesquit - cynical and non-sequitur
Charwit - charming wit or witty charm
Lungartwix - the area between the heart and lungs
Beflayed - torn open into two segments, but in a good way
Bronged - banged and rang as if a throng of people was moving through it
Aflond - along a fake pond
Pridled - walked idly in a park
unbeforce - a. not by force b. as never before
tintlight - tinted light
Broon - the part of the moon that can be seen through branches
Becked - beckoned + begged + asked
Coffeecourse - an invitation for coffee which actually means intercourse
Repulsied - replied in a repulsed manner
Trilly - truly silly
Doon - a person struck dumb by the moon's rays
compersnatch - comprehend immediately
Bly - blunt reply
Attemptried - attempted to try
Fiss - a doomed kiss one gives reluctantly, already knowing that it would miss its mark or purpose
Candicely - candidly and decisively, but nicely
Slurned - slowly turned
Snyle - snide smile

* Stultitia est sibiipsi praemium: stupidity is its own reward


* sturm and drang:  Storm and Stress, a more literal translation of Drang might be "urge," "longing," or "impulse") is the name of a movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s, in which individual subjectivity and, in particular, extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment and associated aesthetic movements.

* Sturmabteilung: SA, Storm Detachment; or English: Stormtroopers) functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (or Nazi Party). It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. SA men were often called "brownshirts" for the colour of their uniforms (similar to Benito Mussolini's blackshirts). The SA was the first Nazi paramilitary group to develop pseudo-military titles for bestowal upon its members. The SA ranks were adopted by several other Nazi Party groups, chief amongst them the SS, itself originally a branch of the SA. Brown-coloured shirts were chosen as the SA uniform because a large batch of them were cheaply available after World War I, having originally been ordered during the war for colonial troops posted to Germany's former African colonies. The SA became largely irrelevant after Adolf Hitler ordered the "Blood Purge" of 1934. This event became known as the Night of the Long Knives. The SA was effectively superseded by the SS, though never formally dissolved.

* sua sponte: (Latin "on its own will or motion.") means to act spontaneously without prompting from another party. The term is usually applied to actions by a judge taken without a prior motion or request from the parties. The plural form nostra sponte is sometimes used when the action is taken by a multi-member court, such as an appellate court, rather than a single judge.
One situation in which a party might encourage a judge to move sua sponte occurs when that party is preserving a special appearance (usually to challenge jurisdiction), and therefore cannot make motions on its own behalf without making a general appearance. Common reasons for an action taken sua sponte are when the judge determines that the court does not have subject-matter jurisdiction or that the case should be moved to another judge because of a conflict of interest, even if all parties disagree.


* suasion: persuasion: the act of persuading (or attempting to persuade); communication intended to induce belief or action. Persuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding people and oneself toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not always logical) means. It is strategy of problem-solving relying on "appeals" rather than coercion. ...

* suborn:
Bribe or otherwise induce (someone) to commit an unlawful act such as perjury.
bribe - corrupt - tamper - nobble - buy

* subvention: Provision of help, aid, or support.An endowment or a subsidy, as that given by a government to an institution for research; ...

* succedaneum: (Medicine) Obsolete something that is used as a substitute, esp any medical drug or agent that may be taken or prescribed in place of another
[from Latin succēdāneus following after, from succēdere to succeed]

* sui generis:  is a Neo-Latin expression, literally meaning of its own kind/genus or unique in its characteristics.[1] The expression was effectively created by scholastic philosophy to indicate an idea, an entity or a reality that cannot be included in a wider concept.[citation needed] In the structure "genus → species" a species that heads its own genus is known as sui generis. This does not mean, however, that all genera with only a single member are composed of sui generis species. It is only if the genus was specifically created to refer to that one species, with no other known examples, that the species is sui generis. If the species is alone merely due to extinction, as in the case of the Homo genus, the surviving species is not sui generis, because other members of the genus are known, even if they are not currently extant. constituting a class of its own; unique; "a history book sui generis"; "sui generis works like Mary Chestnut's Civil War diary" the 10th album by Mexican pop singer Yuri. It was released in 1989.It sold more than 350000 copies earning Gold and Platinum discs.

* suidae: the biological family to which pigs belong. In addition to numerous fossil species, up to sixteen extant species are currently recognized, including the domestic pig Sus scrofa domesticus or Sus domesticus. The extant species are classified into between four and eight genera. In addition to numerous species of wild pig, these include the babirusa Babyrousa babyrussa and the warthog Phacochoerus aethiopicus. All suids are native to the Old World, ranging from Asia and its islands, to Europe, and Africa.

* summum bonum:  a Latin expression meaning "the highest good", which was introduced by Cicero, to correspond to the Idea of the Good in Ancient Greek ...

* superannuated:  incapacitated or disqualified for active duty by advanced age. Older than the typical member of a specified group <a superannuated graduate student>

* supererogatory: observed or performed to an extent not enjoined or required.  Superfluous <now that the dress code has been e-mailed to everyone and posted on our intranet site, a paper memo about it seems supererogatory>

* supernumerary: present in excess of the normal or requisite number, in particular.(of a person) not belonging to a regular staff but engaged for extra work. not wanted or needed; redundant."books were obviously supernumerary, and he began jettisoning them" BOTANYZOOLOGY denoting a structure or organ occurring in addition to the normal ones."a pair of supernumerary teats”,(of an actor) appearing on stage but not speaking.

* suppurate: To form or discharge pus, as a wound; maturate.

* susurrus: Whispering, murmuring, or rustling: "the susurrus of the stream".

* Swarfega:  a brand of heavy-duty hand cleaner made by Deb Limited, a British company based in Denby, Derbyshire, and is used in engineering and other oily, dirty, manual trades, such as printing. It is a dark green, gelatinous, thixotropic substance used to clean grease, oil, printer's ink, or general persistent, hydrophobic dirt from the skin. Swarfega is used by working a small amount into dry skin, then wiping or rinsing off. As with other such cleaners, it can be more effective than soap or other common cleansing products at removing such dirt; Swarfega became virtually ubiquitous in environments where this kind of dirt is common, such as garages and machine shops.

* sycophantic: a servile person who, acting in his or her own self-interest, attempts to win favor by flattering one or more influential persons, with an undertone that these actions are executed at the cost of his or her own personal pride ... given to obsequious flattery

* Sykes-Picot system: Asia Minor Agreement, was a secret agreement between the United Kingdom and France, to which the Russian Empire assented. The agreement defined their mutually agreed spheres of influence and control in Southwestern Asia. The agreement was based on the premise that the Triple Entente would succeed in defeating the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

* Syncretism: the attempt to reconcile contrary beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining," but see below for the origin of the word. Syncretism may involve attempts to merge and analogise several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, and thus assert an underlying unity allowing for an inclusive approach to other faiths.
Syncretism also occurs commonly in expressions of arts and culture (see eclecticism) as well as politics (see syncretic politics). Combining gods, Evolution of gods, City gods attributes, snow / nativity

* synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special, as in ten sail  for ten ships  or a Croesus  for a rich man.

Synesthesia:  a perceptual condition of mixed sensations: a stimulus in one sensory modality (e.g., hearing) involuntarily elicits a sensation/experience in .. syn, "together", and αἴσθησις aisthēsis, "sensation") is a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.[1][2][3][4] People who report such experiences are known as synesthetes.
Difficulties have been recognized in adequately defining synesthesia:[5][6] many different phenomena have been included in the term synesthesia ("union of the senses"), and in many cases the terminology seems to be inaccurate. A more accurate term may be ideasthesia.

* synod: an assembly of the clergy and sometimes also the laity in a diocese or other division of a particular church. a Presbyterian ecclesiastical court above the presbyteries and subject to the General Assembly.