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Examples

  • “God-damned sawny-mouthed bitch of a sodding witch she was, sir.”

    Sharpe's Rifles Cornwell, Bernard 1988

  • The Oracle had Uncle Bob, of course, and long Dave Regan, the drover -- a good-hearted, sawny kind of chap that'd break the devil's own buck-jumper, or smash him, or get smashed himself -- and little Jimmy

    Over the Sliprails Henry Lawson 1894

  • "An 'no one but a sawny' xpects it to be powerful cold in July," growled

    The Treasure of Heaven A Romance of Riches Marie Corelli 1889

  • He told me that Ellis was always looked upon as a very quiet, rather sawny sort of a fellow, without any harm; that he kept much to himself, and had no intimate friends.

    Ernest Bracebridge School Days William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

Comments

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  • "Sawny, or Sandy. A general nick-name for a Scotchman, as Paddy is for an Irishman, or Taffy for a Welchman; Sawny or Sandy being the familiar abbreviation or diminutive of Alexander, a very favourite name among the Scottish nation."

    - Francis Grose, 'The Vulgar Tongue'.

    September 12, 2008