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saoul

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Etymology and origin of the French word saoul

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1121–1134 Philippe de Thaon, Bestiaire More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin satullus via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin satur

Pronunciation

Forms

saoul (feminine saoule, masculine plural saouls, feminine plural saoules)[1] Old French säul, saol and saul.[2][3] The spelling soûl is the Académie's from 1694;[3][2] saoul is now dated.[3][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French saül, inherited from Latin satullus (“rather sated”), a diminutive of satur (“full, sated”).[2][1][4][5] The Latin adjective is related to satis (“enough”).[3] The circumflex of ⟨soûl⟩ was introduced in the 15th century.[3]

Cognate with Romanian sătul, Italian satollo, Old Occitan sadol and Catalan sadoll.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire (1121–1134) has säul “sated”;[2] a Judeo-French noun saule “having eaten one's fill” is found earlier, in Rashi's glosses of the late 11th century.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective first meant having eaten and drunk one's fill; marked as familiar by the Académie from 1694, this sense was pushed out by the narrower “drunk”, first found in Rabelais in 1534.[3][2] From the 12th century it was also used figuratively, être soûl de “to have had enough of”.[3][2] Comparisons followed the same shift: soûl comme une grive was said of someone who had eaten too much (1486), after the thrush gorged on grapes, and came to mean “dead drunk” (1690).[3]

As a noun it means one's fill, in boire son saoul (Wace, 1160–1174), later tout son soûl.[2][3]

Timeline

  • 1121–1134 – Säul “sated” in Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire.[2]
  • 1160–1174 – Wace uses boire son saoul.[2]
  • c. 1165 – Saol de “sick of” in Benoît de Sainte-Maure.[2]
  • 1486 – Soûl comme une grive “overfed” is recorded.[3]
  • 1534 – Rabelais uses it for “drunk”.[2][3]
  • 1690 – Soûl comme une grive means “dead drunk”.[3]
  • 1694 – The Académie adopts the spelling soûl.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (familiar) Drunk: soûl comme une grive, fin soûl “dead drunk”.[7][2]
  2. (figurative) Intoxicated, carried away: saoul de musique.[7][2]
  3. (obsolete) Having eaten one's fill, sated.[7][1]
  4. (literary) Sated to the point of disgust, sick of something.[7][2]

Noun

  1. Tout son soûl: to one's heart's content, as much as one wants: rire tout son soûl.[7][2]

Word family

  • saouler

Usage notes

Both spellings, saoul and soûl, have been accepted by the Académie since 1798, and the 1990 spelling reform proposals write soul, souler.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 246b
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Saoul.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/saoul. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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