Forms: 5–8 (9 arch.) sorel, 5 sorelle, sowrell, 5–8 sorell, 6–7 soril; 6–7 sorrell, 7 -ill, 6– sorrel. [a. OF. sorel (soreal, -eaul, -iel), f. sore SORE a.2 Hence also med.L. sorellus.]
A. adj. Of a bright chestnut color; reddish brown: a. Of horses (or other animals).
1469. in Somerset Med. Wills (1901), 216. I will that my seruant William Wilson have a sorelle hackney of mine.
1543. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), VI. 175. A sorell geldinge.
1570. Bury Wills (Camden), 156. My sorrell meare coult.
1634–5. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 39. Here, in their stable, four dainty sorrel pied horses.
1680. Lond. Gaz., No. 1520/4. A Sorrel, or Bright Chesnut Mare, about 14 Hands and a half high.
1704. Swift, Batt. Bks., Misc. (1711), 252. A sorrel Gelding of a monstrous Size.
1706. Lond. Gaz., No. 4190/4. A sorrel chesnut Nag, a little crack winded.
1823. E. Moor, Suffolk Words, Sorrel. Chestnut-coloured, as applied to a horse.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., I. iv. 50. How Mas’r Shelby was thinking of buying a new sorrel colt.
1884. Bible (R.V.), Zech. i. 8. Behind him there were horses, red, sorrel, and white.
b. Of hair or persons.
1600. Breton, Pasquils Fooles-cap, xxv. Shee, in a glasse, that sees her Sorrell haire, And straight will put it to the Painters die [etc.]. Ibid. (1603), Mother’s Blessing, lxxv. A sorrell foretop, and a sowish feature.
1634. Massinger, Very Woman, III. i. My sorrel slaves are of a lower price, Because the colour’s faint.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. i. 696. A Roan-Gelding…, a Lock on’s hoof, A sorrel-mane.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Sorrel-pate, red Hair’d.
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 36. 2/2. Red Hair’d People, or Carrotty, Sandy, Sorrel, or what you will call them.
c. Of color or hue.
1534. in Wells Wills (1890), 41. Oon mayre of sorell color.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 72. Mark how they color change, From blacke to browne, from browne to sorrel bay.
1611. Cotgr., Saurir, to … turne into a Sorrell colour. Ibid., Vntill they [sc. herrings] haue gotten their Sorrell hue.
B. sb. 1. A horse of a bright chestnut or reddish-brown color; also as the name of a horse. (So OF. Sorel.)
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 202. But on them she wyl have a bonde, As weel of bayard as of brende, And yit for sorelle she wyl stonde.
1482. in Cely Papers (Camden), 109. Grett sorell ys in good plyght.
1599. Hall Sat., VI. i. 223. Saint Georges Sorrel, or his crosse of blood.
1600. J. M., New Metamorphosis (Nares, 1859). Noe holla Jacke, nor Sorrell, hola boye, Will make them stay.
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 90. 3/1. O’er Hill and Dale on Sorrel, Noble Steed.
1748. Smollett, R. Random, ix. Sure my Lord’s Sorrel is not resty. Ibid. Sorrel, disdaining the rein; sprung forward.
1783–9. T. Day, Sandford & Merton (1851), 442. I can assure you they are the true Suffolk sorrels, the first breed of working horses in the kingdom.
1842. Borrow, Bible in Spain (1843), III. xix. 368. The horse was small, but beautiful, a sorrel with long mane and tail.
1894. J. B. Carrington, in Outing, XXIV. 383/2. Going on through life at the easy, comfortable pace with which old sorrel jogs him to town on court days and fair days.
transf. 1803. J. Davis, Trav. U. S., 378. Story of Dick the Negro…. ‘I am no half and half breed; no chesnut-sorrel of a mulatto.’
b. In allusive use: (see quot. 1710).
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., II. viii. 82. Those that (Profanely if not Traiterously) Drink a Health to Sorrel.
1710. Answ. to Sacheverell’s Serm., 15. The King [William III.] having … a fall from his Horse (called Sorrel),… which was thought to be the cause of his Death, they rejoyced at it, and did usually drink a Health to Sorrel.
2. A buck in its third year. Now Obs. or arch.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Hunting, e iv. And ye speke of the Bucke, the fyrst yere he is A fawne,… The secunde yere a preket, the iii. yere a sowrell.
1530. Palsgr., 272/2. Sorell, a yonge bucke.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. ii. 60. The Dogges did yell, put ell to Sore, then Sorell iumps from thicket.
1616. N. Riding Rec., II. 122. John Turner presented for breaking the chase of the Rt Hon. Lord Burghley and shooting a sorell there.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 27 July 1654. I went to the hunting of a sorel deere.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. i. 310. If any Deer come out that is not weighty, or a Deer of Antlier, which is Buck, Sore, or Sorel.
1865. G. F. Berkeley, Life & Recoll., II. 256. Doe or buck, pricket, sor or sorel, my orders from the Crown were that every one should be destroyed.
transf. 1612. Christian turned Turk (T.). I am but a mere sorell; my head’s not hardened yet!
3. A sorrel or reddish-brown color. Freq. with reference to horses.
1530. Palsgr., 272/2. Sorrell, colour of an horse, sorrel.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 273. His horse was of a fiery sorrell, with blacke feete.
1611. Cotgr., Alezan toustade, a darke reddish colour, as of mettall burnt in the fire; a burnt sorrell.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 155/1. Sorrel, is more lighter than a light Bay inclining to a yellow.
1706. Stevens, Span. Dict., I. Alazán dorádo, betwixt Roan and Sorrel.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 11. The best colours for lines are sorell, white, and grey.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., Sorrel, a colour between a chestnut and a red.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Elsie V. (1887), 111. She was of the shade we call sorrel, or, as an Englishman would perhaps say, chestnut.
