[Cf. MDu. suutsee, zuutsee, the Mediterranean; Du. zuidzee, G. südsee the Pacific.]
† 1. a. The sea to the south of Europe; the Mediterranean. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIV. ii. (Bodl. MS.). Hote vapoure and moiste comeþ oute of þe souþe see.
† b. The English Channel. Obs.
[1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), II. 37. The side of the sowthe see of Briteyne.]
1478. Itin. Will. de Worcestre (Nasmith, 1778), 90. Branston, per 8 miliaria de Axmynster, et per 4 miliaria de le south-see.
2. pl. The seas of the southern hemisphere: esp. the South Pacific Ocean.
c. 1528. R. Thorne, Let. Hen. VIII., in Hakluyt (1589), 251. Vntill they come to the … South Seas of the Indies Occidentall.
1601–. [see NORTH SEA 3].
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xix. 365. Brave Candish … through the South Seas pass’d, about this earthly ball.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. (Globe), 544. To sail from the Philippine Islands, away to the South-Seas.
1745. P. Thomas (title), A Voyage to the South-Seas … in H.M.S. Centurion.
1802. Pinkerton, Mod. Geogr., II. 506. The Grecian … forms, given by artists … to the people of the South seas,… are totally false.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1119/1. Arrowroot … is a favourite ingredient for puddings and cakes in the South Seas.
3. The South Pacific Ocean; † the Pacific Ocean as a whole (obs.).
1555. Eden, Decades, III. iii. (Arb.), 251. The Spanyardes thought that by this ryuer they might haue passed into the south sea.
1638. Chilmead, trans. Hues’ Treat. Globes, III. i. (Hakl. Soc.), 79. America … is terminated … on the West with … the South Sea.
1771. Encycl. Brit., III. 449/1. [The] Pacific … was called south-sea, because the Spaniards crossed the isthmus of Darien from north to south, when they first discovered it.
1840. Penny Cycl., XVII. 116/2. The Pacific … is also called the South Sea, because vessels sailing from Europe can only enter it after a long southerly course. Ibid., 117/1. The name of South Sea has been limited in later times to the southern portion of the Pacific.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat. (1901), 510. The introduction of Christianity throughout the South Sea.
fig. 1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 207. One inch of delay more, is a South-sea of discouerie.
1721. Swift, Ess. Eng. Bubbles. The ambitious citizens … plunged deep in the wealthy whirlpool of the South Sea.
b. ellipt. for ‘South Sea bonds, scheme,’ etc.
1717. Mrs. Centlivre, Bold Stroke for Wife, IV. i. 1 Stock. South Sea at seven eighths; who buys?
1721. Swift, South Sea Project, Wks. 1841, I. 622/1. The nation then too late will find … Directors’ promises but wind, South Sea, at best, a mighty bubble.
1856. Bagehot, Lit. Studies, II. 1. The real founder was the grandfather of the historian [Gibbon], who lived in the times of the ‘South Sea.’
† 4. Cant. (See quots.) Also attrib. Obs.–0
1725. New Cant. Dict., South-Sea, a strong distill’d Liquor, so called by the Inhabitants and Clients of Newgate, &c. Ibid., South-Sea Mountain, Geneva.
5. attrib. South Sea bubble, = South Sea scheme; South Sea Company, a company incorporated in 1711 for the purpose of exclusive trade with the South Seas, and of taking up the unfunded National Debt; South Sea scheme, a stock-jobbing scheme which was inaugurated by this Company in 1720 for taking up the whole National Debt, but collapsed in the same year. Also South Sea bonds, dream, fund, stock, etc.
1711. (title) A View of the Coasts, Countries and Islands Within the Limits of the South-Sea-Company.
1711. View Coasts, etc., of South-Sea-Comp., 207. Of the … Countries and Islands within the Limits of the South-Sea-Act.
1720. A. Hutcheson (title), A Collection of Calculations and Remarks relating to the South Sea Scheme & Stock.
1721. Amherst, Terræ Filius, No. 12 (1726), 60. I conceive the sum of the charge against the South-sea directors to be this.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., IV. 76. As wealthy as a South-sea dream.
1771. Encycl. Brit., III. 632/2. Things were in this situation, when … the South Sea bubble was projected.
1809. R. Langford, Introd. Trade, 57. South sea stock 89 means, that 89l. will purchase 100l. of this stock.
1857. Geo. Eliot, Ess. (1884), 54. South-Sea dreams and illegal percentage.
b. In specific names, etc. (see quots.).
1866. Treas. Bot., 1119/1. The … tubers [of Tacca pinnatifida] … contain a great deal of starch known as *South-sea Arrowroot.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., 254/1. Tacca pinnatifida, Otaheita Salep-plant, Pi-plant, South-Sea-Arrow-root-plant.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), V. 407/1. Having … been furnished with *South Sea cloth from the ship, he equipped himself with great quickness.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl. App. s.v. Rose, *South-Sea Rose, a name sometimes given to the Nerion of botanists.
1866. Treas. Bot., 991. South Sea rose, of Jamaica, Nerium Oleander.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Paraguay, or Paragone,… a celebrated Plant,… better known, of late, among us, under the Denomination of *South-Sea Tea.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 317. Southsea Thea, Ilex.
1872. De Vere, Americanisms, 396. South-sea-tea or Yopon (Ilex vomitoria) occurs North and South.
c. In miscellaneous uses.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), V. 391/1. While Mr. Cook proceeded to visit others of the South Sea Islands.
1813. Prichard, Phys. Hist. Man, vi. § 6. 312. He [Cook] regarded their dialect as a branch of the South Sea language.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, III. 261. Cramp’d under worse than South-sea-isle taboo.
1897. Flora Shaw, Story Australia, iii. 22. A delicacy … altogether wanting in other South Sea tribes.
Hence South-seaman, a vessel trading in the South Seas.
1805. Naval Chron., XIV. 169. One Store-ship, and a captured English South Seaman.
1839. T. Beale, Nat. Hist. Sperm Whale, 293. Those very people have massacred nearly the whole of the crew of a South-seaman.
1898. F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ vi. 51. The clear and sweet oil … after three years in cask is landed from a south-seaman as inoffensive in smell and flavour as the day it was shipped.
