Definitions
Etymologies
- Hindi sā'is, from Arabic, active participle of sāsa, to tend, manage, perhaps denominative from *sūs, horse, Hebrew sûs. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Fortunately the syce was a handy lad, for he not only guided us but held me from tumbling out of the saddle; I don't remember much of the journey except that it lasted for ages, and then we were among trees, with the hooves padding on grass, the syce was shaking my arm, and there ahead was the pavilion, half-hidden by the foliage.”
“At last one day the princess happened to go on to the roof and looking down at the stables saw and thought she recognised her husband; then she leaned over and listened till she heard his voice and at that she was sure that it was he, so she hastened to the Raja and begged to be allowed to meet her husband, and the Raja sent to call the syce with the name which the princess had given but no one came, for the prince would not reveal himself.”
“I took a couple of packages from my trunk, stowed them in my saddle-bag, waved to Skene, and trotted off to meet royalty, with only the syce to show me the way.”
“I must have been drunker than I felt, for it took me three shots to mount, and then, with a wave to Ilderim, who was glowering doubtfully from the verandah, I trotted off, with the syce scrambling up behind.”
“I didn't want the syce spying, so I slid down and told him to wait, and then I pushed on.”
“By jove, I was feeling prime; I dandied myself up in no time, rinsed my face to clear some of the booze away, and was out champing on the verandah as the syce brought my pony round.”
“I had intended to pass the next day looking about the city, perhaps having a discreet word with Carshore the Collector and the colonel of the sepoys, but as the syce* (* Groom.) was bringing round my pony to the dak-bungalow, up comes Skene in a flurry.”
“After that, the pony could not, or would not, go; and the Malay syce with difficulty got it along by dragging it, and we had to walk up every hill in the fierce heat of a tropic noon.”
“All you had to do was to hand over all your uniform and clothes to the dressing boy, your ponies to the syce, and your money to the butler, and you need never trouble any more.”
“I had to buy two good horses, engage a military syce groom, and complete my martial wardrobe in many particulars.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘syce’.
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Learned (or Encountered) in Reading
I have a list for words learned from Newsweek; here's where I keep all the stuff from other shit I read.
Except when I'm looking stuff up and find new words that way. Those go on their...cellie, laminectomy, mridangam, terroir, hypospadias, crus, corpora cavernosa, crura, uretheral meatus, bartholin's gland, coloquintida, colopexy and 921 more...
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Words
This list is a dumping/sorting ground. Maybe I'll get around to categorising these words, or not.
Probably, not.nominalize, nascent, adroit, felicitous, appellation, paramour, pneumatic, rapacious, sinistral, neologism, piquancy, plenitude and 60 more...
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the phantom rickshaw
ere, livery, avowal, jhampanies, shale, Waler, solecism, servitor, coolie, wroth, broidery, smother and 6 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for syce.
chained_bear Usage on gharries. May 4, 2010