suck

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sʌk/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English suken, souken, inherited from Old English sūcan,^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *suk-,^[2] from Proto-Indo-European *seue- (“to take liquid”), probably imitative,^[2][5][6] the source also of Latin sūgere “to suck” and sūcus “juice”, and Old Irish súgim.^[2][3][7] A parallel form gave Old English sūgan, Dutch zuigen and German saugen.^[7][3] It is related to soak and suction.^[3][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To draw milk from the breast or udder into the mouth: before 830 in Old English, and about 1150 in Middle English.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Of blood, as of biting flies, it is from the mid-14th century, and suck the blood of, to exhaust, by the 1580s.^[2] The noun, the act of sucking, is from about 1300,^[3][2] a small drink from the 1620s, and the suck of a whirlpool by 1778.^[2] Teach your grandmother to suck eggs is from 1732.^[2] Suck up to, to flatter, was schoolboys' slang of the mid-19th century.^[5] The sense “to perform fellatio” is recorded by 1928,^[2] and the slang “to be contemptible” by 1971.^[2]

Timeline

• a. 830 – to suck milk.^[3]
• c. 1300 – noun.^[3]
• mid-14th century – of blood.^[2]
• 1732 – teach your grandmother to suck eggs.^[2]
• mid-19th century – suck up to.^[5]
• 1971 – to be contemptible.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To draw liquid into the mouth using the lips and tongue.
2. To hold something in the mouth and draw on it: suck a sweet.
3. To pull something in by suction or as by a current.
4. (informal, with up) To try to please someone in power; to fawn.
5. (slang) To be very bad or unpleasant.

Noun

1. An act of sucking.

Word family

• suckless
• suck-up
• unsucked
• honeysuckle
• outsuck
• suckfish
• sucker
• suckle

Related words

• suckling
• suction
• soak

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press