sop

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English soppe,^[2][3] inherited from Old English sopp, found early in soppcuppe (“cup into which sops are put”),^[4][5][3][6] from Proto-Germanic *supô.^[1] Barnhart reconstructs *suppṓ, earlier *supnṓ,^[5] and Ayto a base *sup-.^[7] It is apparently from the weak grade of sūpan (“to swallow, sip, drink”), the source of sup,^{[4][8][9][10]} for which Barnhart gives Proto-Indo-European *seub-.^[5] Its cognates are Middle Low German soppe (“broth”), Middle Dutch sop, Old High German sopfa (“bread and milk”) and Old Norse soppa (“soup”), though the OED calls the Old Norse word foreign.^[4][2][5][9] In Middle English it was probably reinforced by the synonymous Old French soupe, the source of soup.^[4][3][5] The verb is inherited from Old English soppian, formed from the noun.^[4][5][9] Etymonline gives a Middle English soppen, but Barnhart, Dictionary.com and Hoad find no verb in Middle English; it reappears in the 16th century, before 1529 in Skelton.^{[3][5][11][8]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A piece of bread or the like dipped in a liquid: first in Old English glosses,^[4] and before 1000 in the compound soppcuppe.^[5] The Old English verb, to dip or soak bread, is in the Leechdoms.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Chaucer's Franklin liked a sop in wyn in the morning.^[12][13] From the piece of soaked bread the word spread to things of little worth (1377–1529, in Langland),^[4] and to anything thoroughly soaked (1597, in Richard III).^[4] Johnson (1755) quoted Shakespeare's make a sop of all this solid globe.^[14] A dull or foolish person, a milksop, was a sop by 1637,^[4][9] or by the 1620s in Etymonline.^[3] The modern sense, something given to appease, is from 1665 and alludes to the Aeneid, where the Sibyl gives a drugged cake to the watchdog Cerberus so that Aeneas can pass into the underworld; hence a sop to Cerberus.^{[4][5][7][12][3]} The verb followed in 1837, in Carlyle, as to bribe or propitiate.^[4] Its sense "drench" dates from 1682, and "be soaking wet" from 1831,^[4] and Ayto notes that the verb "dip" survives mainly in the participle sopping.^[7] In English dialect sop also meant various soaked foods, such as bread in melted butter and sugar in the Lake District and bread in beer in Yorkshire.^[15]

Timeline

• before 1000 – a piece of bread soaked in liquid, in soppcuppe.^[5][4]
• Old English – verb, to dip or soak bread.^[4][5]
• c. 1330 – to eat a sop, to have a light meal (obsolete by 1440).^[4]
• 1377 – something of small value (obsolete by 1529).^[4]
• 1597 – a person or thing thoroughly soaked.^[4]
• 1637 – a dull or foolish person.^[4] Etymonline dates it to the 1620s.^[3]
• before 1642 – a tuft of wet green grass among hay.^[4]
• 1665 – something given to appease, a bribe.^[4][5]
• 1682 – verb, to drench.^[4]
• 1700 – an accumulation of liquid.^[4]
• 1729 – a thorough wetting.^[4]
• 1831 – verb, to be soaking wet.^[4]
• 1837 – verb, to bribe or propitiate.^[4]
• 1888 – sop up, to soak up.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A piece of bread or other food dipped in a liquid before being eaten.^[16][2][4] Merriam-Webster's Unabridged labels it chiefly dialectal.^[2]
2. Something given or done to placate someone; a small concession or bribe: The extra day's leave was a sop to the angry staff.^[16][2][4]
3. (informal) A weak or foolish person; a milksop.^[16][2][4]
4. A wet, soggy mess, or a thorough soaking.^[2][4][9]
5. (dialect) A tuft of wet green grass among hay.^[2][4]
6. (obsolete, 1377–1529) A thing of little value.^[4][9]

Verb

1. To dip or soak food in a liquid: He sopped his toast in the soup.^[16][2][4]
2. To mop up or absorb a liquid, usually with up: She sopped up the spill with a towel.^[2][4][9]
3. To become or be completely wet.^[16][2][4]
4. Of moisture, to soak in or through.^[2][4]
5. To give a bribe or a conciliatory gift to someone.^[2][4]

Word family

• soppy
• soursop
• sweetsop
• sippet

Related words

• milksop
• sopping
• sup
• soup
• sip
• supper

Usage notes

A northern English sop, a small cloud of mist on a hilltop and earlier a compact body of troops, has a separate origin, perhaps Old Norse soppr (“ball”).^[4][9][15]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ 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 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins