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South Sea
[Cf. MDu. suutsee, zuutzee, the Mediterranean; Du. zuidzee, G. südsee the Pacific.]
†1.
a. The sea to the south of Europe; the Mediterranean. Obs.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiv. ii. (Bodl. MS.), Hote vapoure and moiste comeþ oute of þe souþe see.
†b. The English Channel. Obs.
[1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 37 The side of the sowthe see of Briteyne.] 1478Itin. Will. de Worcestre (Nasmith, 1778) 90 Branston, per 8 miliaria de Axmynster, et per 4 miliara de le south-see.
2. pl. The seas of the southern hemisphere; esp. the South Pacific Ocean.
c1528R. Thorne Let. Hen. VIII in Hakluyt (1589) 251 Vntill they come to the..South Seas of the Indies Occidentall. 1601–[see North Sea 3]. 1622Drayton Poly-olb. xix. 365 Brave Candish..through the South Seas pass'd, about this earthly ball. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 544 To sail from the Phillippine Islands, away to the South-Seas. 1745P. Thomas (title), A Voyage to the South Seas..in H.M.S. Centurion. 1802Pinkerton Mod. Geogr. II. 506 The Grecian..forms, given by artists..to the people of the South seas,..are totally false. 1866Treas. Bot. 1119/1 Arrowroot..is a favourite ingredient for puddings and cakes in the South Seas.
3. a. The South Pacific Ocean; † the Pacific Ocean as a whole (obs.).
1555Eden Decades iii. iii. (Arb.) 251 The Spanyardes thought that by this ryuer they might haue passed into the south sea. 1638J. Chilmead tr. Hues' Treat. Globes iii. i. (Hakl. Soc.) 79 America..is terminated..on the West with..the South Sea. 1771Encycl. Brit. III. 449/1 [The] Pacific..was called south-sea, because the Spaniards crossed the isthmus of Darien from north to south, when they first discovered it. 1840Penny Cycl. XVII. 116/2 The Pacific..is also called the South Sea, because vessels sailing from Europe can only enter it after a long southerly course. Ibid. 117/1 The name of South Sea has been limited in later times to the southern portion of the Pacific. 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. (1901) 510 The introduction of Christianity throughout the South Sea.
fig.1600Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. ii. 207 One inch of delay more, is a South-sea of discouerie. 1721Swift Ess. Eng. Bubbles, The ambitious citizens..plunged deep in the wealthy whirlpool of the South Sea.
b. ellipt. for ‘South Sea bonds, scheme’, etc.
1717S. Centlivre Bold Stroke for Wife iv. i, 1 Stock. South Sea at seven eighths; who buys? 1721Swift South Sea Project Wks. 1841 I. 622/1 The nation then too late will find..Directors' promises but wind, South Sea, at best, a mighty bubble. 1856Bagehot Lit. Studies II. 1 The real founder was the grandfather of the historian [Gibbon], who lived in the times of the ‘South Sea’.
†4. Cant. (See quots.) Also attrib. Obs.—0
1725New Cant. Dict., South-Sea, a strong distill'd Liquor, so called by the Inhabitants and Clients of Newgate, &c. Ibid., South-Sea Mountain, Geneva.
5. attrib.
a. South Sea bubble = South Sea scheme; South Sea Company, a company incorporated in 1711 for the purpose of exclusive trade with the South Seas, and of taking up the unfunded National Debt; South Sea scheme, a stock-jobbing scheme which was inaugurated by this Company in 1720 for taking up the whole National Debt, but collapsed in the same year. Also South Sea bonds, South Sea dream, South Sea fund, South Sea stock, etc.
1711(title), A View of the Coasts, Countries and Islands Within the Limits of the South-Sea-Company. 1711View Coasts, etc., of South-Sea-Coy. 207 Of the..Countries and Islands within the Limits of the South-Sea-Act. 1720A. Hutcheson (title), A Collection of Calculations and Remarks relating to the South Sea Scheme & Stock. 1721Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 12 (1726) 60, I conceive the sum of the charge against the South-sea directors to be this. 1742Young Nt. Th. iv. 76 As wealthy as a South-sea dream. 1771Encycl. Brit. III. 632/2 Things were in this situation, when..the South Sea bubble was projected. 1809R. Langford Introd. Trade 57 South sea stock 89 means, that 89l. will purchase 100l. of this stock. 1857Geo. Eliot Ess. (1884) 54 South-Sea dreams and illegal percentage.
b. In specific names, etc. (see quots.).
1866Treas. Bot. 1119/1 The..tubers [of Tacca pinnatifida]..contain a great deal of starch known as *South-sea Arrowroot. 1884Miller Plant-n. 254/1 Tacca pinnatifida, Otaheita Salep-plant, Pi-plant, South-Sea-Arrow-root-plant.
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) V. 407/1 Having..been furnished with *South Sea cloth from the ship, he equipped himself with great quickness.
1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. App. s.v. Rose, *South-Sea Rose, a name sometimes given to the Nerion of botanists. 1866Treas. Bot. 991 South Sea rose, of Jamaica, Nerium Oleander.
1728Chambers Cycl., Paraguay, or Paragoue,..a celebrated Plant,..better known, of late, among us, under the Denomination of *South-Sea Tea. 1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 327 Southsea Thea, Ilex. 1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 396 South-sea-tea or Yopon (Ilex vomitoria) occurs North and South.
c. In miscellaneous uses.
1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) V. 391/1 While Mr. Cook proceeded to visit others of the South Sea Islands. 1813Prichard Phys. Hist. Man vi. §6. 312 He [Cook] regarded their dialect as a branch of the South Sea language. 1832A. Earle Narr. Residence N.Z. (1966) 58, I am persuaded that these South Sea islanders, though so nearly of the same complexion, still are not of the same race. 1847Tennyson Princess iii. 261 Cramp'd under worse than South-sea-isle taboo. 1897F. L. Shaw Story Australia iii. 22 A delicacy..altogether wanting in other South Sea tribes. 1913C. Mackenzie Sinister Street I. ii. ii. 173 That belt of yours, Michael, would give a South Sea Islander a headache. 1974J. Pope-Hennessy R. L. Stevenson xi. 211 Louis..was as brown as a South Sea Islander.
Hence South-seaman, a vessel trading in the South Seas.
1805Naval Chron. XIV. 169 One Store-ship, and a captured English South Seaman. 1839T. Beale Nat. Hist. Sperm Whale 293 Those very people have massacred nearly the whole of the crew of a South-seaman. 1898F. T. Bullen Cruise Cachalot vi. 51 The clear and sweet oil..landed from a south-seaman. |