Forms: α. 3 surgerun, suriurn, 3–4 suriuren. β. 4 soiorn(e, 4, 7 soiourn(e, 5 soiurne, sojorne, 7– sojourn. γ. Sc. 5 su(d)iorne, 6 su(d)georne. [a. OF. surjurn, sujurn, sojorn, etc. (= It. soggiorno, Pg. and obs. Sp. sojorno), vbl. sb. from surjurner, etc.: see SOJOURN v.
The stressing sojou·rn occasionally appears in poetry.]
1. A temporary stay at a place.
α. c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2696. Ðoȝ was him ðat surgerun ful loð. Ibid., 3308. He maden siðen, fro elim, Mani suriuren in ðe desert sin.
β. 13[?]. Guy Warw. (A.), 2770. Anon after þe tende day Of her soiourn … Gij is to þe douke y-go.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, VII. 385. That he to Carleill than vald ga, And a quhill tharin soiorn ma.
c. 1410. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), xii. In longe soiourne þei leseth her clees and hir feet.
1459. Rolls of Parlt., V. 363/1. The seid Prince shuld be in sojorne with the Kyng.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. i. 48. The Princes, France & Burgundy,… Long in our Court, haue made their amorous soiourne.
1671. Milton, P. R., III. 235. Scarce view’d the Gallilean Towns, And once a year Jerusalem, few days Short sojourn.
1814. Wordsw., Laodamia, 73. Meekly mourn When I depart, for brief is my sojourn.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, VI. lii. 276. Here … he made a sojourn of sixty days.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1877), I. 215. The Normans were tired of Lewis’s prolonged sojourn.
fig. 1804. H. K. White, in Rem. (1825), 270. Your friend, and fellow-traveller in the Tearful sojourn of life.
γ. 1375. Barbour, Bruce, XX. 356. A weill gret sudiorne thair he mad.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, I. (Katherine), 4. He … to þe cite was cumyne,… & suiorne mad.
1528. Lyndesay, Dreme, 359. In tyll ane volt, abone that place of paine, Vnto the quhilk, but sudgeorne, we ascendit.
† b. A delay; a digression. Obs.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 6977 (Kölbing). Lete we now be þis soiourne & speke we of Oriens wroþ.
1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 176. Wes neuer sugeorne wer [= worse] set na on that snaill tyrit.
2. A place of temporary stay. Also fig.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 3155. He … wasteþ al my londes, saue onliche in þis cite where soiourne wot i neuer.
a. 1400. Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., xxviii. 23. Heil soiourne þat Godus sone to sent.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., cxiii. There as hir duelling is and hir soiurne.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 15. Thee I re-visit now…, Escap’t the Stygian Pool, though long detain’d In that obscure sojourn.
1768. Beattie, Minstr., I. xxvi. Let those deplore their doom, Whose hope still grovels in this dark sojourn.
1810. Southey, Kehama, XXII. iv. This gloomy bourne, The dread sojourn Of Guilt and twin-born Punishment and Woe.
1858. Rawlinson, trans. Herodotus, II. cxxxiii. II. 210. Visiting all the places that he had heard were agreeable sojourns.
