Chapter SATIN to SAYER of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

SATIN to SAYER

SATIN, s. This is of course English, not Anglo-Indian. The common derivation [accepted by Prof. Skeat (Concise Dict. 2nd ed. s.v.] is with Low Lat. seta, ‘silk,’ Lat. seta, saeta, ‘a bristle, a hair,’ through the Port. setim. Dr. Wells Williams (Mid. King., ii. 123) says it is probably derived eventually from the Chinese sz’-tün, though intermediately through other languages. It is true that sz’tün or sz’-twan is a common (and ancient) term for this sort of silk texture. But we may remark that trade-words adopted directly from the Chinese are comparatively rare (though no doubt the intermediate transit indicated would meet this objection, more or less). And we can hardly doubt that the true derivation is that given in Cathay and the Way Thither, p. 486; viz. from Zaitun or Zayton, the name by which Chwan-chau (Chinchew), the great medieval port of western trade in Fokien, was known to western traders. We find that certain rich stuffs of damask and satin were called from this place, by the Arabs, Zaitunia; the Span. aceytuni (for ‘satin’), the medieval French zatony, and the medieval Ital. zetani, afford intermediate steps. ), which are called from the name of the city zaitunia.”—Ibn Batuta, iv. 269.

1352.—In an inventory of this year in Douet d’Arcq we have: “Zatony at 4 écus the ell” (p. 342).

1405.—“And besides, this city (Samarkand) is very rich in many wares which come to it from other parts. From Russia and Tartary come hides and linens, and from Cathay silk-stuffs, the best that are made in all that region, especially the setunis, which are said to be the best in the world, and the best of all are those that are without pattern.”—Clavijo (translated anew—the passage corresponding to Markham’s at p. 171). The word setuni occurs repeatedly in Clavijo’s original.

1440.—In the Libro de Gabelli, &c., of Giov. da Uzzano, we have mention among silk stuffs, several times, of “zetani vellutati, and other kinds of zetani.”—Della Decima, iv. 58, 107, &c.

1441.—“Before the throne (at Bijanagar) was placed a cushion of zaituni satin, round which three rows of the most exquisite pearls were sewn.”—Abdurrazzak, in Elliot, iv. 120. (The original is “darpesh-i-takht balishi az atlas-i-zaituni”; see Not. et Exts. xiv. 376. Quatremère (ibid. 462) translated ‘un carreau de satin olive,’ taking zaitun in its usual Arabic sense of ‘an olive tree.’) Also see Elliot, iv. 113.

SATRAP, s. Anc. Pers. khshatrapa, which becomes satrap, as khshayathiya becomes shah. The word comes to us direct from the Greek writers who speak o f Persia. But the title occurs not only in the books of Ezra, Esther, and Daniel, but also in the ancient inscriptions, as used by certain lords in Western India, and more precisely in Surashtra or Peninsular Guzerat. Thus, in a celebrated inscription regarding a dam, near Girnar:

c. A.D. 150.—“… he, the Maha-Khshatrapa Rudradaman … for the increase of his merit and fame, has rebuilt the embankment three times stronger.”—In Indian Antiquary, vii. 262. The identity of this with satrap was pointed out by James Prinsep, 1838 (J. As. Soc. Ben. vii. 345). [There were two Indian satra p dynasties, viz. the Western Satraps of Saurashtra and Gujarat, from about A.D. 150 to A.D. 388; for which see Rapson and Indraji, The Western Kshatrapas (J. R. A. S., N. S., 1890, p. 639); and the Northern Kshatrapas of Mathura and the neighbouring territories in the 1st cent. A.D. See articles by Rapson and Indraji in J.R.A.S.,N.S., 1894, pp. 525, 541.]

1883.—“An eminent Greek scholar used to warn his pupils to beware of false analogies in philology. ‘Because,’ he used to say, ‘ [Greek Text] satraphV is the Greek for satrap, it does not follow that [Greek Text] ratraphV is the Greek for rat-trap.’”—Sat. Rev. July 14, p. 53.

SATSUMA, n.p. Name of a city and formerly of a principality (daimioship) in Japan, the name of which is familiar not only from the deplorable necessity of bombarding its capital Kagosima in 1863 (in consequence of the murder of Mr. Richardson, and other outrages, with the refusal of reparation), but from the peculiar cream-coloured pottery made there and now well known in London shops.

1615.—“I said I had receued suffition at his highnes hands in havinge the good hap to see the face of soe mightie a King as the King of Shashma; whereat he smiled.”— Cocks’s Diary, i. 4–5.

1617.—“Speeches are given out that the caboques or Japon players (or whores) going from hence for Tushma to meete the Corean ambassadors, were set on by the way by a boate of Xaxma theeves, and kild all both men and women, for the money they had gotten at Firando.”—Ibid. 256.