soak

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English soken,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English socian (“to soak, to lie in liquid”),^[2][5][6][4] formed from the weak grade of the stem of sūcan (“to suck”), the source of suck.^[5][7][8][9] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford also compare soc (“sucking at the breast”).^[8][7] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Germanic *sukōną,^[2] and Ayto to *suk-, the same base as suck; he takes it for a fairly late Germanic formation, whose only close relative is West Flemish soken, also zoken, "to soak".^[10][5][8] Etymonline adds that the root may be Proto-Indo-European *seue- (“to take liquid”),^[2] the root to which the American Heritage Dictionary refers it.^[4] Holthausen glosses the Old English verb as "to cook", a sense Collins also gives.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English, to lie in a liquid until thoroughly wet, in a medical recipe of the Saxon Leechdoms that leaves a mixture to soak in the sun for four days or more;^[5][6] Bosworth–Toller also records the transitive sense "to steep in a liquid".^[6] Barnhart dates the Middle English verb, meaning to wet through or saturate, to about 1340.^[13][14]

Semantic evolution

Around 1340 the verb was used transitively of a liquid soaking something through, both literally and, in Richard Rolle's Psalter, figuratively.^[5][2] From about 1440 it meant to percolate or ooze into or through something.^[5][8] From the 1550s it also meant to take up a liquid by absorption.^[2] The drinking sense, to drink heavily, appears in the 17th century: the Oxford English Dictionary records it from 1687, and Green's Dictionary of Slang finds Dekker's "lye soaking" in a tippling house in 1608.^[5][15] From this came the noun soak for a heavy drinker, recorded in slang from 1785 and in the OED from 1820, in John Clare.^[15][5] The noun for the act of soaking is dated to the 15th century by Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster,^[14][2][16] although the OED's first record is from 1598, in the phrase in soak.^[5] American slang added soak, to overcharge, by 1895,^[2][17] and soak, to hit, from 1892, perhaps a variant of sock.^[15] In metalwork the verb has meant from 1843 to heat metal evenly through its mass.^[5][12] In Australia a soak is a hollow where water gathers after rain, a sense the OED records from 1894;^[5][18] in West Somerset dialect the verb could mean to drain away or dry up by evaporation.^[19] The Historical Thesaurus's metaphor map connects wetness with money and with poverty.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English socian, to lie soaking in a liquid.^[5][14]
• c. 1340 – transitive, of a liquid: to saturate; also figurative.^[5][14]
• c. 1440 – to percolate, ooze through.^[5]
• c. 1450 – noun, the act of soaking (OED: 1598).^[14][2][5]
• 1608 – to drink heavily (OED: 1687).^[15][5]
• 1785 – noun, a drunkard (OED: 1820).^[15][5]
• 1843 – of metal, to heat evenly throughout.^[5]
• 1892 – American slang, to hit.^[15]
• 1894 – in Australia, a hollow holding water after rain.^[5]
• 1895 – slang, to overcharge.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make something thoroughly wet, especially by leaving it in a liquid; to steep: Leave the lentils to soak for an hour.^[17][12][16]
2. To lie in a liquid until thoroughly wet or softened.^[17][16][5]
3. Of a liquid, to pass into or through something; to seep or permeate: Rain soaked into the dry soil.^[17][12][16]
4. To take in a liquid by absorption, usually with up: The towel soaked up the spilt milk.^[17][12][16]
5. To take in knowledge or an experience eagerly, usually with up or in.^[17][16]
6. To remove dirt or a stain by keeping something in a liquid.^[17][12][16]
7. (informal) To drink alcohol to excess.^{[17][12][16][5]}
8. (slang) To overcharge someone, or to tax them heavily.^[17][2]
9. (metallurgy) To heat metal evenly throughout before working it.^[12][5]

Noun

1. The act of soaking or the state of being soaked: a long soak in the bath.^[17][16][5]
2. The liquid in which something is soaked.^[17][16][5]
3. (informal) A heavy drinker; a drunkard.^[17][16][5]
4. (Australia) A hollow or patch of ground where water collects after rain.^[16][5]

Word family

• soaker
• soakingly
• oversoak
• presoak
• resoak
• soakage
• water-soak

Related words

• suck
• soggy

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
15. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
18. ^ Morris, Edward E. (1898), Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages, London: Macmillan
19. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
20. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk