Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The process of wetting a surface to be grained with a sponge moistened with beer and then rubbing it with whiting, in order that the colors which are mixed with beer may adhere.
Etymologies
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Examples
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He touched the stun which I shew He touched the _stone_ which I him, an di guess it made him sithe, _showed_ him and it made him for twas cissing hot. _sigh_, for _it was hissing_ hot.
English Grammar in Familiar Lectures Samuel Kirkham
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Rodd literally jumped in his alarm, for there was a tremendously wild cissing from the pan and a horrible suggestion therewith that Mrs
The Ocean Cat's Paw The Story of a Strange Cruise George Manville Fenn 1870
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I dursen't try and climb that tree again with the water all cissing up to get at me. "
The Kopje Garrison A Story of the Boer War George Manville Fenn 1870
qms commented on the word cissing
Wordnik’s definition of “cissing” in the main entry restricts the word to an obsolete technique in decorative painting. The beer sponging process may have resulted in a mottled and streaked surface that imitates wood graining but the same effects are achieved otherwise these days and “cissing” is used to describe a paint surface that has failed due to improper preparation.
Art History Archive: In painting, an application of color that would have resulted in a flat area of paint (covering with an even thickness), but resulted instead in running streaks and bare spots, usually because of poor wetting of the surface.
Oxford Dictionaries: (In decorating) failure of paint to adhere properly to a surface.
I have confirmed this with an informant formerly engaged in the decorative painting business. This informant also opines that there is an inherent flaw in the archaic practice of cissing:
Clue one: the painter keeps pissing.
Clue two: the beer pail is missing.
You will not expunge
A drink from that sponge.
No painter wastes lager on cissing.
August 5, 2014