soil

Soil, to make dirty, and soil, the earth, are distinct words, both from French, though they have influenced each other.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sɔɪl/^[4]

soil¹ make dirty

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English soillen, borrowed from Old French souillier (“to make dirty; originally, to wallow”),^[3][2][5] from souil “tub, wild boar's wallow, pigsty”.^[3][2] This is either from Latin solium (“tub for bathing, seat”), related to sit,^[2][3] or from Latin suculus “little pig” or suile “pigsty”, from sūs (“pig”).^[3][5][6] Barnhart says the second view has been superseded by von Wartburg's work in the FEW.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To defile or pollute with sin: the early 13th century, before 1250 in the Ancrene Riwle.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense, to make dirty on the surface, is attested from about 1300.^[3] A noun soil, a muddy place or a wild boar's wallow, and in hunting a pool where a hunted deer takes refuge, is from the early 15th century,^[3][6] and filth, refuse or excrement from about 1600, partly as a native formation from the verb.^[3] This is the soil of the plumber's soil pipe (by 1833) and of archaic night-soil.^[3]

Timeline

• a. 1250 – to defile with sin.^[2]
• c. 1300 – to make dirty.^[3]
• early 15th century – a muddy wallow.^[3]
• c. 1600 – filth, excrement.^[3]
• 1833 – soil pipe.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To make dirty, especially on the surface.
2. To spoil a person's reputation; to tarnish.
3. To dirty with excrement.

Noun

1. Dirt, filth or sewage.

soil² earth

Etymology

The earth is inherited from Middle English sol, soyle, borrowed from Anglo-Norman soil (“piece of ground, place”),^[3][2][5] from Latin solium (“seat”), influenced in meaning by Latin solum “ground, base, floor”.^[2][5][7] Etymonline describes it as a merger of three Old French words: sol “ground”, from solum; soeul “threshold, place”, from solium; and soille “a miry place”.^[3] It is related to sole and sit.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Land, an area or place: about 1300 in Etymonline, before 1300 in Barnhart.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The earth or ground is from the late 14th century,^[3] and mould or earth, especially that in which plants grow, from the mid-15th.^[3] One's native land, as in foreign soil, is from about 1400, and this was the original sense of the word.^[3][1][8]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – land, place.^[3]
• c. 1400 – one's native land.^[3][8]
• mid-15th century – earth for plants.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The top layer of the earth in which plants grow, made of rock particles mixed with humus.
2. A particular kind of earth: sandy soil.
3. A country or territory: on foreign soil.
4. A place where something can grow and develop.

Related words

• solum
• sully
• sole

Usage notes

An obsolete verb soil, “to absolve” or “to solve a problem”, from Old French soudre and Latin solvere, was used until the 17th century; compare assoil.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press