sopa

Forms

sopa f (plural sopas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin suppa (“piece of bread soaked in a liquid”), a word of Germanic origin.^[2][3][4][1] Corominas places the Germanic word in the family of Old High German sūfan (“to sip, to drink”) and Old Norse súpa, and thinks it may also be related to Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐍀𐍉𐌽 (supōn, “to season”).^[2][3] Wiktionary gives the source as Proto-Germanic *supô, a noun formed from *sūpaną (“to drink, to sip”).^[1] The Latin form first appears in a translation of Oribasius made at Ravenna early in the 6th century, in the sense “sopped bread”.^[2] Corominas notes that Kluge explained the word in two ways, first from the Germanic verb “to sip”, later from the Gothic verb “to season”, and that the two views may not exclude each other.^[2] Bénaben and the DHLF give the Gothic verb as the probable source.^[5][6]

The same word is Portuguese sopa, Catalan sopa, Occitan sopa, French soupe and Italian zuppa;^[7][6] Corominas finds it in every Romance language except Romanian and perhaps Sardinian.^[2][7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Derivatives are recorded before the noun itself: a Leonese charter of 942 has soparia, a Latinised form of sopera, and Berceo uses sopear.^[2][3] The earliest Spanish text with the noun in the CDH is the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, known from an early 15th-century copy).^[8][9] The first sense was the Germanic one, a piece of bread soaked in a liquid: the Estoria de España tells how the faithful gave a man tres sopas “three sops” to eat and wine to drink.^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

From the sop itself the word passed to the plural sopas “bread soup” and then, in the singular again, to any liquid or semi-liquid dish.^[3][2] Nebrija (c. 1495) still has sopa de pan, Latin offa panis.^[2][11] Autoridades (1739) defines the sop first, then the cut bread put into broth, and then a dish of bread and broth served instead of the broth alone.^[12] The Academy's dictionary of 1843 adds the soup handed out to the poor at convent doors, which gave the phrase sopa boba for a life lived at someone else's expense.^[13][4] Cervantes mentions students who lived on this convent soup.^[14]

Today the main sense is a dish of broth with solid ingredients cooked in it; in Mexico sopa also means noodles, and sopa seca a dish of rice or pasta without broth.^[4][1] The phrase hecho una sopa means “soaked through”.^[15][4]

Timeline

• 942 – soparia, a Latinised sopera, in a Leonese charter.^[2][3]
• 1220–1250 – the verb sopear in Berceo.^[2][3]
• 1240–1250 – the noun in the Libro de Alexandre, in an early 15th-century copy.^[8]
• 1250–1300 – the Fuero General de Navarra has hot water poured over sopas with grated cheese.^[8]
• c. 1400 – the Escorial and Toledo glossaries, Corominas's first record, translate Latin vipa with sopa en vino.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: sopa de pan, Latin offa panis.^[11]
• 1548 – first record in the Americas, at Santo Domingo.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives the word from Latin offa.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Sanskrit supa “sauce”; the current dictionary gives Germanic *sŭppa.^[18][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. soup: a dish of broth with one or more solid ingredients cooked in it: Para cenar hay sopa de verduras.^[4][1]
2. A dish of slices of bread soaked in a nourishing liquid, such as milk.^[4][19]
3. (usually in the plural) A piece or slice of bread for soaking in a liquid; a sop.^[4][1]
4. The pasta, starch or vegetables put into this dish.^[4]
5. (Mexico) noodles.^[1]

Word family

• sopear
• sopero
• sopista
• sopar
• sopera
• ensopar

Related words

• French soupe
• Italian zuppa

Usage notes

Set phrases include sopa boba, the bread and broth once given to the poor at convents and, figuratively, an idle life at another's expense, and hasta en la sopa “everywhere”.^[4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 304
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sopa
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. sopa
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. sopa
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. soupe
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. sopa
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. sopa
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. sopa
10. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. sopa
11. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. sopa
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 154
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 676
14. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 1048
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 927
16. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. sopa
17. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1307
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 989
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sopa