sith

See also: siþ, sìth, síth, and síð

English

Alternative forms

• sithe

Etymology 1

From Middle English sith (“journey, movement, lifetime, period, occasion”), from Old English sīþ (“journey, movement, trip, point in time, occasion”), from Proto-West Germanic *sinþ, from Proto-Germanic *sinþaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to go, head”). Cognate with Faroese sinn (“time”), Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌽𐌸𐍃 (sinþs, “path, movement”), Icelandic sinn (“time”). See also send.

Pronunciation

• enPR: sēth, IPA^(key): /siːθ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːθ

Noun

sith (plural siths)

1. (obsolete) A journey, way.

   Synonyms: trip; see also Thesaurus:journey

   • 15th c., “Thomas Indie [Thomas of India]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 340, line 85:

     The holy gost before vs glad / ffull softly on his sithe

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (obsolete) One's journey of life, experience, one's lot, also by extension life, lifetime.

   Christ's sith of sorrow and suffering.

3. (obsolete) An instant in time, a point in time or an occasion.

   Synonyms: juncture, time; see also Thesaurus:point in time

   • a. 1450, Secretum Secretorum in Ashmole:

     Of them the other philosophers have, by siths, taken their beginning.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, book 3, canto X, stanza 33:

     The foolish man thereat woxe wondrous blith, / As if the word so spoken, were halfe donne, / And humbly thanked him a thousand sith, / That had from death to life him newly wonne.

   • 1598, Joseph Hall, Quid placet ergo?, line 79:

     His land mortgag'd, he, sea-beat in the way, / Wishes for home a thousand siths a day.

Usage notes

Sith fell out of common usage in the 16th century. 14th and 15th century mentions are plentiful and the presence of this word in such works as The Towneley Plays (which were performed up until the latter half of the 16th century) indicates that the word was still probably in use throughout the first half of the 16th century, mostly in various idioms and set expressions. The phrase “by siths” used to mean “at times, sometimes”.

References

• The Middle English Dictionary
• The Dictionary of Early English

Etymology 2

Clipping of sithen; compare German seit (“since”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: sĭth, IPA^(key): /sɪθ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪθ

Conjunction

sith

2. Archaic form of since. [8th to 17th century]

   Alternative forms: sithe, sithen, sithence, sithens, syth, sythe

   Synonyms: as, because, seeing that; see also Thesaurus:because

   • 1552, Hugh Latimer, “The Third Sermon, Preached on the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity, 1552, by Master Hugh Latimer.”, in The Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in God, and Constant Martyr of Jesus Christ, Hugh Latimer, Some Time Bishop of Worcester, […], volume II, London: […] James Duncan, […], published 1824, →OCLC, page 161:

     Therefore we need not fear them, sith Christ is with us; […]

     The spelling has been modernized.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], signature E2, verso:

     Welcome deere Roſencraus, and Guyldensterne, / Moreouer, that we much did long to ſee you, / The need we haue to vſe you did prouoke / Our haſtie ſending, ſomething haue you heard / Of Hamlets transformation, ſo call it, / Sith nor th'exterior, nor the inward man / Reſembles that it was, what it ſhould be, / More then his fathers death, that thus hath put him / So much from th'vnderſtanding of himſelfe / I cannot dreame of: […]

   • 1607 November 5, John Kinge, A Sermon Preached in Oxford: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Ioseph Barnes, page 23:

     I had almost askt-⁠-⁠-qui gurges, aut quis tartarus hoc ſcelus-⁠-eſt auſus attrectare? ſith in ſo many thouſãds of years from the fal of the reprobate and faithleſſe angels it neuer came into the head of anie deuil to ſuggeſt to the hart of any mã before this time ſo nefarious, flagitius, portentuous a wickedneſſe, as this was?

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 35:6, signature Bbbb3, verso, columns 1–2:

     Therefoꝛe, as I liue, ſaith the Loꝛd GOD, I will pꝛepare thee vnto blood, and blood ſhall purſue thee: ſith thou haſt not hated blood, euen blood ſhall purſue thee.

References

• Shipley, Joseph T. (1955), Dictionary of Early English, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 602

Further reading

• “sith”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “sith”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “sith”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “sith”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “sith”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “sith”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “sith”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025), “sith”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “sith”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volume V, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 5660, columns 2–3.

Anagrams

• HITs, Hist, This, Tish, hist, hist-, hist., hits, iths, shit, this, tish

Middle English

Alternative forms

• siþ, siþe, syþe, sið, siðe, sihþ (Early Middle English)
• sid, sithe, syd, syde, syth, sythe

Etymology

From Old English sīþ, sȳþ.

Noun

sith (plural sithes)

1. a journey, way
   1. one's conduct, behavior, way of life, custom
2. one's lot in life, fortune, experience, lifetime
   1. misfortune, calamity
3. a specified point in time, moment
   1. a particular span of time, period, age, era
   2. repeated instances, occurrences of an event, occasions
4. (mathematics, in the plural) units of multiplication, multiples, groupings equivalent to a multiplication sign between multiplier and multiplicand

Descendants

• English: sith

Further reading

• “sīth, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Old Frisian

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *sinþ (“journey, occasion”), from Proto-Germanic *sinþaz (“journey, occasion”), from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to go”). Cognates include Old English sīþ (“occasion”), Old Saxon sīth and Old High German sind (“travel”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiːθ/

Noun

sīth m

1. companion

References

• Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009), An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN