A corruption of set or sat, originally English, used in the U.S. in a more or less ludicrous way. Dr. Dwight in 1821 quotes it as a cockneyism: ‘Travels,’ iv. 280. [See also Appendix XII.]

1

1776.  June 5th. I sot [sic] out from Falmouth this morning in a Postchaise…. 6th. Sot out towards Plymouth. 9th…. Sot out from Plymouth.—Thomas Hutchinson, ‘Diary,’ ii. 67 (1886).

2

[1822.  

        She couldn’t blush, ’cause she’d got no fan,
So she sot and grinn’d at the dog’s meat man.
Hudson’s ‘Comic Songs,’ Collection, 4, Lond.].    

3

1833.  The elegantest carriage that ever mortal man sot eyes on.—James Hall, ‘Legend of the West,’ p. 185. (For fuller quotation see FIXINGS.)

4

1837.  Why don’t you buy a digestion of the laws, so as to know what’s right and what’s wrong? It’s all sot down.—J. C. Neal, ‘Charcoal Sketches,’ p. 189.

5

[1841.  I’m thinking jest now we’re besot all round with troubles; and there’s no telling which is biggest, closest, and ugliest—they’re all big, and close, and ugly.—W. G. Simms, ‘The Kinsmen,’ i. 122.]

6

1853.  If Mr. Stebbins was alive, you wouldn’t get the colt so cheap, for he sot every thing by him. He’s sot his pedigree down in the births, deaths, and marriages, in our family Bible.—Durivage, ‘Life Scenes,’ p. 192.

7

1854.  Well, the judge sot, and the jury sot, and the witnesses were brought on and examined.—Knick. Mag., xliii. 92 (Jan.).

8

1855.  

        In testimony of which fact
  (For want of room at bottom,)
Our hands and names here on the back
  Deliberately we ’ve sot ’em.
Id., xlv. 211 (Feb.).    

9

1856.  See KERDASH.

10

1857.  Well, Squire, I sot right down on a stone, and went to thinkin’ to see if I couldn’t learn somethin’ from the old bird.—J. G. Holland, ‘The Bay-Path,’ p. 197.

11

1857.  In strugglin’ up he [the deer] oversot me; and as he made his drive one prong went through the calf of my leg.—S. H. Hammond, ‘Wild Northern Scenes,’ p. 171.

12

1861.  She was old, an’ thin, an’ hard-lookin’; her mouth was pale an’ sot, like she was bitin’ somethin’ all the time.—Atlantic Monthly, viii. 67/1 (July).

13

*** See Appendix XII. See also UPSOT.

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