sirdar bearer (or simply sirdar)

The chief of the palanquin-bearers, who is generally his master's valet. sire, s. [The same word as sir (q. v.).] 1. A title of respect, addre ed to seniors or superiors; sir. It is now used only in addre ing a king or other sovereign prince. " Sire knight, (quod he) my maister and my lord." Chaucer: C. T., 839. (Prol.) 2. A father, a progenitor. (Used only in poetry, and in composition, as grandsire=grandfather, .) "Whether his hoary sire he spies, While you sand grateful thoughts arise, Or meets his spouse's fonder eye." Pope: Chorus to Brutus. IMG:content-1513.png:[blocks in formation] sired on seen from the illustration, in the perfect animal the gils are absorbed, and the whole bouy becomes al ered. Both larval and adult forms are oviparous, and from the eggs of both branchiate and abran A B Amblystoma Mexican us. A. Larval form, or Axolotl. B. Adult form. chiate young have been produced, so that the Amblystome or perfect form may be born from an egg, or lose its gills and change its shape by metamorphosis. *sïre'-le , a [Eng. sire, s.; -le .] Having no sire or father; fatherle , orphaned. "The sirele offspring and the lonely spouse." Byron. Addre for Caledonian Meeting (1814). sir-en, *ser-ein, *sir-ene, *syr-ene, s. & a. [Lat. siren; Gr. seiren , a word of doubtful etymology; Fr. sirène ; Sp. & Ital. siren a .] A. As substantive: I. Ordinary Language: 1. In the same sense as II. 2. "Next, where the sirens dwell, you plow the seas." Pope: Homer's Ody ey, xii. 51. *2. A mermaid. "Over-against the creeke Pæstanum, there is Leucasia, called so of a meremaid or sirene there buried."-P. Hol land Pliny , bk. iii., ch. vii. 3. A charming, alluring, or seductive woman; a woman dangerous from her powers of alluring or enticing. "Oh, train me not, sweed mermaid, with thy note, To drown me in thy sister's flood of tears: Sing, siren , to thyself, and I will dote." Shakesp.: Comedy of Errors, iii. 2. *4. Something alluring, seductive, or insidious. II. Technically: 1. Acoustics: An instrument for determining the number of vibrations corresponding to a note of any given pitch. In its most elementary form the siren is simply a perforated rotating disk, against which a current of air is directed, producing sounds of higher or lower pitch, according to the velocity of rotation. The improved siren of Helmholtz consists of two equal disks, one forming the top of a hollow fixed cylinder into which air can be driven, the other capable of revolving concentrically upon it with the smallest po ible amount of friction. A circle of small holes, equidistant from each other, is bored upon each disk, and concentric with it, those in the upper disk being inclined slantwise to its plane, those in the lower being slantwise also, but in the opposite direction. There are arrangements for registering the number of revolutions the upper disk performs in a minute. Thus, when air is forced into the cylinder, it will pa through the perforations, and, by reason of their obliquity, will cause the movable disk to revolve with a rapidity corresponding to the pre ure, and each time that the holes coincide, a number of little puffs of air get through simultaneously, and, if the pre ure of the air in the cylinder is sufficient, the series of impulses thus given will link themselves to Siren, used as Fog-signal. IMG:content-1514.png:[blocks in formation] 3702 2. Cla . Mythol .: Certain melodious divinities, who dwelt on the shores of Sicily, and so charmed pa ing mariners by the sweetne of their song, that they forgot their homes, and remained there till they perished of hunger. According to one legend, they threw themselves into the sea, from rage and despair, on hearing the more melodious song of Orpheus. Originally there were only two sirens; but their number was afterward increased to three, and their names are given with great variety. 3. Zool .: Mud-eels: a genus of Urodela or of Perennibranch i ate Ichthyoidea, constituting the fam ily Sirenide. They are eel-like Amphibians, with two anterior feet and permanent branch iæ, and range from Texas to Carolina. There are three species. Siren lacertina is the Mud-eel (q. v.). B. As adj .: Pertaining to a siren; like or befitting a siren; bewitching, alluring, fascinating. si-ren-I-a, s. pl . [Mod. Lat., from siren . Named from the pectoral position of the mam me.] 1. Zool .: An order of aquatic Mammal i a, allied to the Cetacea, with which they were formerly and are still occasionally cla ed. The body is long, compact, and cylindrical, narrowing toward the tail, which is set horizontally and terminates either in forked flukes or a flat fibrous expansion. Hind limbs and sacrum absent; anterior limbs converted into paddles. Snout fleshy and well-developed; nostrils on upper surface; lips fleshy, the upper lip sise Entom.: The same as UROCERIDE. Darwin uses Siricide. sir-itch, s . [Arab.] A sweet oil expre ed from the seeds of Sesamum orientale , much used as an article of diet, for friction of the body, and for lamps. IMG:content-1515.png:[graphic] Sir-I-ŭs, s . (Lat., from Gr. Seirios .] Astron.: The Dog-star, by far the brightest fixed star in the sky. It is alpha Canis Major , situated a little below Orion, and is mythologically regarded as one of the hounds held in leash by Orion, Procyon in Canis Minor being the other. A line drawn from the Pleiades through the three stars of Orion's belt will pa it closely; straight lines connecting it with Procyon and Betelguese will constitute a nearly equilateral triangle; and Aldebaran, Betelguese, Sirius, and Regel, all of the first magnitude, form a lozenge-shaped figure, with Orion's belt in the center. Ptolemy, in the second century, ranked Sirius among red stars; now it is white, and is a very brilliant object, its light being 324 times as great as that of a star of the sixth magnitude. It is about a million times as far from us as the sun, and its ma is about twenty times as great. Viewed by the spectroscope, its chief lines are those of incandescent hydrogen, with feebler ones of sodium and magnesium; the metal mercury seems also to be present. Some irregular movements of Sirius led to the belief that a heavenly planet revolving around Sirius as its sun, it is clasping its young to its breast, the stories of Sirens and Mermaids took their rise. There are two recent genera, Halicore and Manatus. The former is mono phyodont, the latter diphyodont, the permanent teeth consisting of molars with flattened crowns adapted for bruising vegetable food. The recent's extinct genus Rhytina (q.v.) had no true teeth. The Sirenia pa their life in the water, living chieny in shallow bays, estuaries, lagoons, and rivers, never straying far from shore, and feeding solely on aquatic vegetation. 2. Palæont .: From the Eocene onward. [EOTHERIUM, RHYTINA.] si-rê-ni-an, a. & 8. [SIRENIA.] A. As adj .: Of or pertaining to the order Sirenia. B. As subst.: Any individual member of the order Sirenia. si-rěn-i-dæ, s. pl. [Mod. Lat. siren; Lat. fem. pl. adj. suff. -idæ.J 1. Ichthy .: A family of Dipnoi, with three genera, Lepidosiren, Prot opter us, and Ceratodus. The caudal fin is diphycercal; no gular plates, scales cycloid. Two molars, above and below, and a pair of vomerine teeth. 2. Palæont.: [CERATODUS.] 3. Zool.. [SIREN, 3.]