Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SEM-I-SPHER'IC, or SEM-I-SPHER'IC-AL, a. [semi and spherical.]

Having the figure of a half sphere. – Kirwan.

SEM-I-SPHE-ROID'AL, a. [semi and spheroidal.]

Formed like a half spheroid.

SEM-I-TER'TIAN, a. [semi and tertian.]

Compounded of a tertian and quotidian ague. – Bailey.

SEM-I-TER'TIAN, n.

An intermittent compounded of a tertian and a quotidian. – Bailey.

SEM'I-TONE, n. [semi and tone.]

In music, half a tone; an interval of sound, as between mi and fa in the diatonic scale, which is only half the distance of the interval between ut and re, or sol and la. It is the smallest interval admitted in modern music. – Encyc. Busby.

SEM-I-TON'IC, a.

Pertaining to a semitone; consisting of a semitone.

SEM-I-TRAN'SEPT, n. [semi and transept; L. trans and septum.]

The half of a transept or cross aisle.

SEM-I-TRANS-PAR'EN-CY, n.

Imperfect transparency; partial opakeness.

SEM-I-TRANS-PAR'ENT, a. [semi and transparent.]

Half or imperfectly transparent.

SEM-I-VER-TIC'IL-LATE, a.

Partially verticillate. – Smith.

SEM-I-VIT'RE-OUS, a.

Partially vitreous. – Bigelow.

SEM-I-VIT-RI-FI-CA'TION, n. [semi and vitrification.]

1. The state of being imperfectly vitrified.
2. A substance imperfectly vitrified.

SEM-I-VIT'RI-FI-ED, a. [See Vitrify.]

Half or imperfectly vitrified; partially converted into glass.

SEM'I-VO-CAL, a. [semi and vocal.]

Pertaining to a semi-vowel; half vocal; imperfectly sounding.

SEM'I-VOW-EL, n. [semi and vowel.]

In grammar, a half vowel, or an articulation which is accompanied with an imperfect sound, which may be continued at pleasure. Thus el, em, en, though uttered with close organs, do not wholly interrupt the sound; and they are called semi-vowels.

SEM-PER-VI'RENT, a. [L. semper, always, and virens, flourishing.]

Always fresh; evergreen. – Lee.

SEM'PER-VIVE, n. [L. semper, always, and vivus, alive.]

A plant. – Bacon.

SEM-PI-TERN'AL, a. [Fr. sempiternel; L. sempiternus; semper, always, and eternus, eternal.]

1. Eternal in futurity; everlasting; endless; having beginning, but no end.
2. Eternal; everlasting. Blackmore.

SEM-PI-TERN'I-TY, n. [L. sempiternitas.]

Future duration without end. – Hale.

SEMPRE, adv. [Sempre.]

In music, throughout.

SEN, adv.

This word is used by some of our common people for since. It seems to be a contraction of since, or it is the Sw. sen, Dan. seen, slow, late.

SEN'A-RY, a. [L. seni, senarius.]

Of six, belonging to six; containing six.

SEN'ATE, n. [Fr. senat; It. senato; Sp. senado; L. senatus, from senex, old, Ir. sean, W. hen; Ar. سَنً sanna, or سَنَه sanah, to be advanced in years. Under the former verb is the Arabic word signifying a tooth, showing that this is only a dialectical variation of the Heb. שן. The primary sense is to extend, to advance or to wear. A senate was originally a council of elders.]

1. An assembly or council of senators; a body of the principal inhabitants of a city or state, invested with a share in the government. The senate of ancient Rome was one of the most illustrious bodies of men that ever bore this name. Some of the Swiss cantons have a senate, either legislative or executive.
2. In the United States, senate denotes the higher branch or house of a legislature. Such is the senate of the United States, or upper house of the congress; and in most of the states, the higher and least numerous branch of the legislature is called the senate. In the United States, the senate is an elective body.
3. In a looser sense, any legislative or deliberative body of men; as, the eloquence of the senate.

SEN'ATE-HOUSE, n.

A house in which a senate meets, or a place of public council. – Shak.

SEN'A-TOR, n.

1. A member of a senate. In Rome one of the qualifications of a senator was the possession of property to the amount of 80,000 sesterces, about £7,000 sterling, or thirty thousand dollars. In Scotland, the lords of session are called senators of the college of justice.
2. A counselor; a judge or magistrate. – Ps. cv.