Sold; betrayed, outwitted:--'If that doesn't frighten him off you're sold' (caught in the trap, betrayed, ruined. Edw. Walsh in Ir. Pen. Journal).
Something like; excellent:--'That's something like a horse,' i.e. a fine horse and no mistake.
Sonaghan; a kind of trout that appears in certain lakes in November, coming from the rivers. (Prof. J. Cooke, M.A., of Dublin: for Ulster):--Irish _samhain_ [sowan], November: _samhnachán_ with the diminutive _án_ or _chán_, 'November-fellow.'
Sonoohar; a good wife, a good partner in marriage; a good marriage: generally used in the form of a wish:--'Thankee sir and sonoohar to you.' Irish _sonuachar_, same sound and meaning.
Sonsy; fortunate, prosperous. Also well-looking and healthy:--'A fine _sonsy_ girl.' Irish _sonas_, luck; _sonasach_, _sonasaigh_, same sound and meaning.
Soogan, sugan, sugaun; a straw or hay rope twisted by the hand.
Soss; a short trifling fall with no harm beyond a smart shock. (Moran: Carlow.) { 331}
Sough; a whistling or sighing noise like that of the wind through trees. 'Keep a calm sough' means keep quiet, keep silence. (Ulster.)
Soulth; 'a formless luminous apparition.' (W. B. Yeats.) Irish _samhailt_ [soulth], a ghost, an apparition; _lit._ a 'likeness,' from _samhai_ [sowel], like.
Sowans, sowens; a sort of flummery or gruel usually made and eaten on Hallow Eve. Very general in Ulster and Scotland; merely the Irish word _samhain_, the first of November; for Hallow Eve is really a November feast, as being the eve of the first of that month. In old times in Ireland, the evening went with the coming night.
Spalpeen. Spalpeens were labouring men--reapers, mowers, potato-diggers, &c.--who travelled about in the autumn seeking employment from the farmers, each with his spade, or his scythe, or his reaping-hook. They congregated in the towns on market and fair days, where the farmers of the surrounding districts came to hire them. Each farmer brought home his own men, fed them on good potatoes and milk, and sent them to sleep in the barn on dry straw--a bed--as one of them said to me--'a bed fit for a lord, let alone a spalpeen.' The word _spalpeen_ is now used in the sense of a low rascal. Irish _spailpín_, same sound and meaning. (See my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,' p. 216; and for the Ulster term see Rabble above.)