sou

Etymology

It is borrowed from French sou,^[2][3][4][5] a singular deduced from the plural sous, earlier soux,^[6][7][8][9] which Etymonline calls a back-formation.^[10] The French word is from Old French sol, also solt, sout and soul,^{[3][6][10][9]} from Late Latin solidus (“a gold coin”),^[4][3][11] the Latin adjective solidus (“solid, firm”) used as a noun, with nummus (“coin”) understood.^[6][11] The Latin word also gave Italian soldo, Spanish sueldo and Portuguese soldo.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The French coin, worth a twentieth of a livre: first in the plural sous in 1502, in the 1989 edition of the OED.^[12] The Shorter Oxford dates the word to the late 15th century,^[6] Etymonline to the 1550s;^[10] the singular sou is recorded from 1814.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

For three centuries English used the French plural, often spelled souse and, as rhymes show, pronounced like house;^[2][12] the older French singular sol is recorded in English from 1583.^[2] From 1570 to 1815 sous served, usually with a negative, as the type of a tiny sum,^[2] as in Not a Souse, not a Penny in the Dictionary of the Canting Crew (about 1698) and in Gay's Beggar's Opera (1727).^[13] Weekley noted that the plural was still sometimes used colloquially as a singular in the early 20th century.^[9] Later the name was used for the five-centime piece.^[2][3][6] The singular sou took over the phrase not a sou, no money at all,^[6][5] and late 19th-century American slang had sou markee in the same sense.^[13]

Timeline

• 1502 – the plural sous, the French coin.^[12]
• 1570 – sous, with a negative, a very small amount (to 1815).^[2]
• 1583 – sol, the older French name of the coin.^[2]
• 1814 – the singular sou.^[2][3] Dictionary.com dates it 1810–20.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A former French coin of low value, at first a twentieth of a livre, later the five-centime piece.^[2][6][3][5]
2. A very small amount of money, especially in negative phrases: He came home from the races without a sou.^{[5][3][6][13]}

Related words

• solidus
• sol
• soldo
• solid
• soldier

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House