/ˈsɜːtiːz/. Also 1500s–1600s sirtis.Syrtisn.
/ˈsəːtɪs//ˈsɜːtiːz/. Also 1500s–1600s sirtis. a. Proper name of two large quicksands (Syrtis major and minor) off the northern coast of Africa; hence gen. a quicksand.
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the world > the earth > land > landscape > marsh, bog, or swamp > [noun] > quicksand
quick gravela1300
quicksanda1300
sucking sand1513
Syrtis1526
sinking sand1531
syrt1574
Serbonian boga1618
flow1819
1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomew de Glanville De Proprietatibus Rerum xv. cl[i]. (Bodl.) lf. 166 b/1 Sirtes beþ places in þe see ful of grauel... Sirtes beþ bi þe see of Egipte and ymedled þerwith in many places.]
1526 Bible (Tyndale) Acts xxvii. 17 Fearynge lest we shulde have fallen into Syrtes [so Coverdale and Geneva; Great Bible the Syrtes, Rheims the Syrte; 1611 the quicke~sands; L. Syrtim, Gk. τὴν Σύρτιν].
1552 T. Cooper Bibliotheca Eliotæ (rev. ed.) Cyrenaica..hath on the west the great Sirtis.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ii. 939 Quencht in a Boggie Syrtis, neither Sea, Nor good dry Land. View more context for this quotation
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis iv, in tr. Virgil Wks. 298 Here lies a barren Wast of thirsty Land, And there the Syrtes raise the moving Sand.
1755 Gentleman's Mag. July 321/2 This prodigious syrtis.
1771 T. Smollett Humphry Clinker III. 78 In crossing these treacherous Syrtes with a guide, we perceived a drowned horse.
b. plural used as singular.
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1646 G. Daniel Addr. 108 in Wks. (Grosart) I. 13 The Labour's over If from this Syrte's wee our Sand recover.
1648 G. Daniel Eclog. v. 124 The Syrtes of my Thought confounds my will.
1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 58 Somewhat undermined by the beating of the Sea, where it works its self into a Syrtes.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1919; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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