Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-03-13

Editors Of the Spy: Just after the recent in.
teresting Poultry Fair may be as good time
as another to decide the momentous grammati-
cal question, whether hens set, or sit. Make the
enquiry suddenly in the public schools of this
city, and it will be found that a large majority
OF the pupils, honoring parental authority, will
affirm positively in favor of set. Only small
minority Of their teachers would promptly and
correctly assert that hens sit! In many New
England dwelinghouses there is an apartment
called, commonly, "the settin' room" The
school children seem generally to I'M
derstand that this should be Sitting
room," although, as in many other
similar cases in their ordinary conversation,
while knowing the better, they persist in using
the worse, form of expression, which, by the
way, is curious fault that somebody should
look after. The word SIT is very old in our Ian
guage, nevertheless, the distinction between set
and SIT having been well kept up, even in the
ancient Saxon mother-tongue Of modern En-
gliSh. An illustration of good old English
usage may be found in the Bible thus,
As the partridge stitch on eggs. Jer. xvii. 1lth
Here is another difficulty. When a farmers
boy prepares a nest for biddy and permits her
TO Sit-not causes her to sit, for that is "aboon
his might, docs he set or sit her? Clearly he
only permission; and there can be found no def
nitions of set, certainly in Worcester'S Dcton-
airy, that at all touch this case. There are, on
the contrary, many traces of the verb SIT used
transitvely, or, as it may perhaps possibly do
to say, semi-transtively. Here is one instance
although not quite applicable to the question
under discussion:
Hardly the muse can sit the beadstrong horse.
Prior
Sill nearer to the question, somewhere in
Shakespeare is this phrase,
and sit him down and die"
Assuming, now, that we cannot set hen, as
setter (dog) sets bird, or in any causatiYe
sense whatever, it must follow perhaps that, in
permitting biddy to sit, we sit her,-f we act
any way IN the premises, as we certainly do &
Leaving this decision to the tender mercy of
such criticism as it may call forth, let us pro.
coed TO another kindred word.
In reports even of school committees, we
sometimes notice "Setts of Maps, &c." which is
at least not so good as "SetS Of &c"
Possibly, however, the carpenters instrument
for driving nails below the surface of board,
may be "sett" see this word in Worcestpr's
Quarto Dictionary. Worcester however, saws
ito set saw; but the setting of nail belongs
to another class OF operations entirely
And this leads to still another word, of alto
gether different origin. When Miss Angelina
Sophronisba Duckie Stubs boasts about socje-
ty, and her set Of associates NAV NOT the real
word that she sought to use be "sept," from the
Latin Septum? See Worcester, and Webster,
also.
But, as the sun is about to set, not Sit il is
nine to sit, not set, down to something of more
importance than it is to set right these gram.
NAUTICAL trines. Therefore, Mr.. Editor, please 10
set up this matter in good type, and set down
the charge therefor, in your set OF account books,
and on some set day, we will sit down and set,
tie il, as well as the question whether we belong
to the same sept, or set, or not
from,-in the oriental style of servile COM
pllment,-your very humble slave and dog,
A SETTER.
NOTE Webster seventh definition of the in.
transitiye verb, "to Sit" is;-"To incubate, to
cover and warm eggs for Matching, as fowl"