schmaltz (en)

excessive sentimentality, especially in music or movies

scholium (en)

(noun) a marginal annotation or comment (as on the text of a classic by an early grammarian) / (noun) a remark or observation subjoined but not essential to a demonstration or a train of reasoning

scirocco (en)

(noun) a hot dust-laden wind from the Libyan deserts that blows on the northern Mediterranean coast chiefly in Italy, Malta, and Sicily / (noun) a warm moist oppressive southeast wind in the same regions / (noun) a hot or warm wind of cyclonic origin from an arid or heated region

sconce (en)

(noun) a bracket candlestick or group of candlesticks / (noun) an electric light fixture patterned on a candle sconce / (noun) head skull / (noun) a detached defensive work

scruple (en)

(verb) hesitate or be reluctant to do something that one thinks may be wrong OR (noun) a feeling of doubt or hesitation with regard to the morality or propriety of a course of action

scuttlebutt (en)

rumor or gossip (deriving from the nautical term for the cask used to serve water)

sectile (en)

(adjective) capable of being severed by a knife with a smooth cut

semioclasm (en)

"sign breaking" or the defiling of the sacred status of signs (a term defined by Roland Barthes)

sequor ad absurdum (la)

follow to absurdity

seriatim (en)

(adverb) in a series / (adjective) following seriatim (Latin)

serried (en)

(adjective) crowded or pressed together; compact / (adjective) marked by ridges; serrate / (verb) to press together especially in ranks / (verb) to crowd together

sestina (en)

(noun) a lyrical fixed form consisting of six 6-line usually unrhymed stanzas in which the end words of the first stanza recur as end words of the following five stanzas in a successively rotating order and as the middle and end words of the three verses of the concluding tercet

sforzando (en)

played with prominent stress or accent —used as a direction in music

shale (en)

(noun) a fissile rock that is formed by the consolidation of clay, mud, or silt, has a finely stratified or laminated structure, and is composed of minerals essentially unaltered since deposition / (noun) a crude dark oil obtained from oil shale by heating / (noun) a rock (as shale) from which oil can be recovered by distillation

Sherwood Anderson (en)

an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works

shtetl (en)

small towns with large Jewish populations, which existed in Central and Eastern Europe before the Holocaust

sibylline (en)

(noun) any of several prophetesses usually accepted as 10 in number and credited to widely separate parts of the ancient world (as Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, and Italy) / (noun) prophetess / (noun) fortune-teller

Sierpinski gasket (en)

a fractal and attractive fixed set with the overall shape of an equilateral triangle, subdivided recursively into smaller equilateral triangles

simony (en)

(noun) the buying or selling of a church office or ecclesiastical preferment

sine ira ac studio (la)

"without anger and fondness" or "without hate and zealousness"; coined by Roman historian Tacitus

skirling (en)

(verb) to emit the high shrill tone of the chanter / (verb) to give forth music / (verb) to play (music) on the bagpipe

slipshod (en)

(adjective) wearing loose shoes or slippers / (adjective) down at the heel; shabby / (adjective) careless slovenly

sodality (en)

(noun) brotherhood community / (noun) an organized society or fellowship / (noun) a devotional or charitable association of Roman Catholic laity

soi-disant (fr)

(adjective) self-proclaimed so-called

Solidarność (en)

a Polish labour union that was founded on 17 September 1980;s the first trade union in a Warsaw Pact country that was not controlled by a communist party