_Skort._--
"Or wily Cyppus that can wink and snort,
While his wife dallies on Mæcenas' skort."--Hall, _Satires_, Book iv.
Sat. 1. (Whittingham's edition, 1824.)
Of course the general meaning of these two verses is obvious enough. But
how is the latter to be read? Are we to read "dallies on," as one word,
_i.e._ keeps dallying, and "skort" (as a mere abbreviation of the Latin
"scortum") as nominative in apposition with "wife?" If so, the verse is
intelligible, though harsh enough even for Hall.
If not, the word "skort" must have some other meaning which I am
unacquainted with. I cannot find it at all in Halliwell, the only authority
I have at hand to refer to.