Chapter Shemitic to Shingebis of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

in office was allowed to take them home for his own eating; but no one else was allowed to partake of them.

Shewri-while A spirit-woman that haunts Mynydd Llanhilleth mountain, in Monmouthshire, to mislead those who attempt to cross it.

Shiahs (See Shiites.)

Shibboleth The password of a secret society; the secret by which those of a party know each other. The
Ephraimites quarrelled with Jephthah, and Jephthah gathered together the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. There were many fugitives, and when they tried to pass the Jordan the guard told them to say Shibboleth, which the Ephraimites pronounced Sibboleth, and by this test it was ascertained whether the person wishing to cross the river was a friend or foe. (Judges xii. 1-16.)

“Their foes a deadly shibboleth devise.”
Dryden: Hind and Panther, pt. iii.

Shield
   The Gold and Silver Shield. Two knights coming from different directions stopped in sight of a trophy shield, one side of which was gold and the other silver. Like the disputants about the colour of the chameleon, the knights disputed about the metal of the shield, and from words they proceeded to blows. Luckily a third knight came up at this juncture, to whom the point of dispute was referred, and the disputants were informed that the shield was silver on one side and gold on the other. This story is from Beaumont's Moralities. It was reprinted in a collection of Useful and Entertaining Passages in Prose, 1826.
   The other side of the shield. The other side of the question. The reference is to the “Gold and Silver Shield.” (See above.)
   That depends on which side of the shield you look at. That depends on the standpoint of the speaker. (See above.)

Shield-of-Arms Same as Coat of Arms; so called because persons in the Middle Ages bore their heraldic devices on their shields.

Shield of Expectation (The). The naked shield given to a young warrior in his virgin campaign. As he achieved glory, his deeds were recorded or symbolised on his shield.

Shields The most famous in story are the Shield of Achilles described by Homer, of Hercules, described by Hesiod, and of Æneas described by Virgil.
   Other famous bucklers described in classic story are the following:- That of
   Agamemnon, a gorgon.
   Amycos (son of Poseidon or Neptune), a crayfish, symbol of prudence.
   Cadmos and his descendants, a dragon, to indicate their descent from the dragon's teeth.
   Eteocles (4 syl.), one of the seven heroes against Thebes, a man scaling a wall.
   Hector, a lion.
   Idoméneus (4 syl.), a cock.
   Menelaos, a serpent at his heart: alluding to the elopement of his wife with Paris.
   Parthenopæos, one of the seven heroes, a sphinx holding a man in its claws.
   Ulysses, a dolphin. Whence he is sometimes called Delphinosemos.
    Servius says that the Greeks in the siege of Troy had, as a rule, Neptune on their bucklers, and the Trojans Minerva.
   It was a common custom, after a great victory, for the victorious general to hang his buckler on the walls of some temple.
    The clang of shields. When a chief doomed a man to death, he struck his shield with the blunt end of his spear, by way of notice to the royal bard to begin the death-song. (See Aegis.)

“Cairbar rises in his arms,
The clang of shields is heard.”
Ossian: Temora, i.

Shi-ites (2 syl.). Those Mahometans who do not consider the Sunna, or oral law, of any authority, but look upon it as apocryphal. They wear red turbans, and are sometimes called “Red Heads.” The Persians are Shiites. (Arabic, shiah, a sect.) (See Sunnites .)

Shillelagh (pronounce she-lay-lah). An oaken sapling or cudgel (Irish).

Shilling Said to be derived from St. Kilian, whose image was stamped on the “shillings” of Würzburg. Of course this etymology is of no value. (Anglo-Saxon, scylling or scilling, a shilling.)
    According to Skeat, from the verb scylan (to divide). The coin was originally made with a deeply-indented cross, and could easily be divided into halves or quarters.