Etymologically
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suck

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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