sob

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sobben,^[2][3][4] probably of imitative origin.^{[5][3][6][7][8]} Several dictionaries compare West Frisian sobje (“to suck”) and the Dutch dialect verb sabben (“to suck”),^{[5][9][10][11][2]} and the Middle English Dictionary also Middle Low German sabben (“to drivel, slaver”);^[2] on this evidence the AHD, Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and Collins suggest a Low German or Dutch source.^{[4][10][9][12]} Etymonline and Skeat relate it to Old English seofian (“to lament”),^[6][13][14] and Skeat to sup as well.^[13] The noun, first as sobbe, is formed from the verb.^[5][3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To weep with short, convulsive catches of the breath, in sorrow or in spiritual fervour: before 1200, in the Vices and Virtues.^[5][3][2] Etymonline dates it to about 1200 and notes that it was used of joy as well as sorrow.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The noun, an act of sobbing, followed in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (about 1374),^[5][3] and Chaucer and Gower each used the verb twice.^[15] From the late 15th century the noun also covered a similar sound made in pain or exertion, and in the 16th and 17th centuries a horse's recovery of its wind, and so a breathing space or respite.^[5][16] The sense of a sound like sobbing, as of the wind or of music, appears in the verb in 1676 and in the noun in 1765.^[5] Transitive uses came later: to bring up or send out with sobs (1718, in Pope's Iliad) and to utter with sobs, usually sob out (1782, in Fanny Burney's Cecilia).^[5] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as a convulsive sigh, "a convulsive act of respiration obstructed by sorrow".^[17] In Northumberland and Yorkshire dialect the wind was said to sob when it dropped and the weather grew calmer.^[18] American English of the early 20th century produced sob sister, a reporter who writes sentimental stories, from 1910 in Etymonline and 1912 in Barnhart,^[6][3] and sob story, a tale of grief, from 1911.^[6]

Timeline

• before 1200 – verb, to weep with convulsive catches of the breath.^[5][3]
• c. 1374 – noun sobbe, an act of sobbing, in Chaucer.^[5][3]
• before 1505 – noun, a similar sound made in pain or exertion.^[5]
• 1593 – noun, a horse's recovery of its wind; a respite (obsolete by 1658).^[5]
• 1658 – reflexive, to sob oneself to sleep or into a state.^[5]
• 1676 – verb, to make a sound like sobbing.^[5]
• 1718 – transitive, to bring up or send out with sobs.^[5]
• 1782 – to utter with sobs, usually sob out.^[5]
• 1910 – sob sister, a writer of sentimental stories.^[6] Barnhart dates it to 1912.^[3]
• 1911 – sob story, a tale of grief.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To weep with loud, convulsive catches of the breath: The boy sobbed into his pillow.^[12][16][5]
2. To say something while sobbing, often with out: She sobbed out the whole story.^[12][5]
3. To bring oneself into a state by sobbing: He sobbed himself into exhaustion.^[12][5]
4. To make a sound like sobbing, as the wind does.^[16][5]

Noun

1. A convulsive gasp or catch of the breath made in weeping.^[12][16][5]
2. A sound like this, made in pain or effort, or by the wind or a musical instrument.^[16][5]
3. (obsolete, 1593–1658) A horse's recovery of its wind after exertion; hence a respite.^[5][16]

Word family

• sobbingly
• sobber
• sobful
• sob sister
• sob story

Related words

• sup

Usage notes

The abbreviation SOB or s.o.b., for "son of a bitch", is chiefly American and Canadian slang, recorded from 1918.^[16][12] A verb sob, to soak or saturate, recorded from 1625, is of unknown origin and is now Scots, dialectal and American;^[5][9] Wright found it from Shetland and Yorkshire to Kent, Hampshire and Cornwall.^[18] British slang sob, a pound, recorded from 1970, is probably an alteration of sov, a sovereign.^[5][9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b 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)