sillabub, syllabub
(ˈsɪləbʌb)
Forms: α. 6 solybubbe, 7 sullabub, sullibib, 7–8 sullibub. β. 6 selybube, 6–7 seli-, 7 sellibub, sallibube. γ. 6 sillye-, 6–7 syllibub, 7 sillie bube, cilli-, 7–8 sillibub, 9 Sc. sillybob. δ. 6 sillabubbe, 6– silla-, 7– syllabub.
[Of obscure origin: cf. sillibouk and sillub. The most frequent spelling from c 1700 has been syllabub, under the influence of syllable.]
1. a. A drink or dish made of milk (freq. as drawn from the cow) or cream, curdled by the admixture of wine, cider, or other acid, and often sweetened and flavoured.
In common use from the 16th cent. to about the middle of the 19th cent., and revived in the 20th.
| α c 1537 Thersytes (1848) 79 You and I..Muste walke to him and eate a solybubbe. 1628 Wither Brit. Rememb. iv. 1186 Some, Sulli-bibs among the Milk-maids, making. 1668 Sedley Mulberry Gard. iv. Wks. 1778 II. 52 Then they must..have the Sullabubs and Tarts brought into the Coach to 'em. 1748 Mrs. S. Harrison House-kpr.'s Pkt.-Bk. vii. (ed. 4) 17 Sullibubs. |
| β 1570 in J. J. Cartwright Chapters Hist. Yks. (1872) 55 They brough this examynent a selybube to drynk. 1584 Cogan Haven Health cc. (1636) 190 A posset or Selibub made of Verjuice, is good to coole a cholerick stomacke. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 348 They vsed to thicken their milk into a kind of pleasant soure curd in manner of a Sellibub. |
| γ 1591–2 Nashe Prognostication Wks. (Grosart) II. 165 Maides this quarter shall make sillyebubbes for their Louers. 1602 in Lyly's Wks. (1902) I. 492 First you shall haue a dayntie sillibub; next a messe of clowted creame. c 1645 Howell Lett. I. iv. v, Leaue the smutty Ayr of London, and com hither.., wher you may pluck a Rose, and drink a Cillibub. 1737 Ochtertyre House-bks. (1907) 104 Sillibubs and cold beefe. 1822 Galt Provost xxx, Instead of the light tarts, and nice jellies and sillybobs that were expected. |
| δ 1598 Marston Pygmal. 60 Ye Granta's white Nymphs, come & with you bring Some sillabub. 1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies, Pedlar 138 This purchaseth him, upon better acquaintance, a posset or a sillabub. a 1668 Davenant Vacation in London Wks. (1673) 289 Her Elbow small she oft does rub; Tickled with hope of Sillabub! 1704 W. King Mully of Mountown 18 Thy White-Wine, Sugar, Milk, to-gether Club To make that gentle Viand Syllabub. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 15 ¶6 Besides what it costs me in tea and hot rolls, and syllabubs. 1817 F. Burney Let. 5 July, Some other ingredient that, when it is poured into a pan, bubbles up like a syllabub. 1853 Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour lxii. 352 How nice it would be to have..a sillabub, under those cedars. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xxiii. (1889) 220 We retire to tea or syllabub beneath the shade of some great oak. 1911 M. A. Fairclough Ideal Cookery Book 722 Syllabubs... Fill some custard glasses rather more than half full with the mixture. 1976 Sat. Even. Post All-American Cookbk. 259/2 A syllabub is a ladylike version of eggnog. |
b. attrib., as
sillabub glass,
sillabub jug,
sillabub pot.
| 1677 in S. Young Hist. Worshipful Company Glass Sellers of London (1913) App. 68 All covers for drinking or ‘Sullibub’ glasses ribbed and plain shall be delivered at 3s. per lb. 1723 J. Nott Cook's & Confectioner's Dict. sig. Ll1, Scum off the Froth, and put it into Syllabub Glasses. 1897 A. Hartshorne Old Eng. Glasses xix. 308 In Mr. Cuming's collection is an open-mouthed glass tumbler, a family relic, 3½ inches high, said to be of the first part of the last century, and called from time immemorial ‘a syllabub or whip glass’. 1970 G. Savage Dict. Antiques 418/2 In the 1770s the old syllabub glass, which was always on a stem and a foot, became unfashionable and was replaced by a stemless glass. |
| 1975 Country Life 2 Jan. 11/3 A Syllabub Jug in Ravenscroft Glass. |
| a 1648 Digby Closet Opened (1677) 230 A large syllabub-pot. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xiv. (Roxb.) 9/2 He beareth sable, a possett pott, or a wassell cup, or a sallibube pott. 1723 J. Nott Cook's & Confectioner's Dict. No. 188 S, Fill your Syllabub-Pot with Cyder..Sugar..Cream. 1910 Queen 9 July 65/1 This syllabub or posset pot is very interesting and..the date of it has been fixed at about 1700. |
2. fig. a. Something unsubstantial and frothy;
esp. floridly vapid discourse or writing.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. 6), Sillabub, or Sillibub,..is figuratively taken for a florid, but frothy and empty Discourse. 1768 Wesley Wks. (1872) XII. 410 Latin and Greek books (compared with which most of the English are whipped Syllabub). 1847 Sedgwick in Clark & Hughes Life & Lett. (1890) II. 113, I shall never again endure the rounded periods and syllabub of Robertson. 1852 Hawthorne Blithedale Rom. xvii, I resolved to pause, and enjoy the moral sillabub until quite dissolved away. 1889 Daily News 11 May 2/1 The new bonnets are the veriest trifles; mere syllabubs of frothed-up lace. |
| attrib. 1849 C. Brontë Shirley xxxvi, When did I whip up syllabub sonnets, or string stanzas fragile as fragments of glass? |
b. A mixture, combination.
| 1859 Thackeray Virgin. lxxvii, Aunt Lambert..was one great syllabub of human kindness. |