E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Sight
for “multitude” is not an Americanism, but good Old English. Thus, in Morte d’Arthur, the word is not unfrequently so employed; and the high-born dame, Juliana Berners, lady prioress in the fifteenth century of Sopwell nunnery, speaks of a bomynable syght of monkes (a large number of friars).
1
“Where is so huge a syght of mony.”—Pulsgrave: Acolastus (1540).
