*supô

Reconstruction

The noun is *supô in Wiktionary^[1] and *supōn in Orel;^[2] Köbler heads it with a long vowel, *sūpō-, *sūpōn, but his Old Norse and Old English dictionaries write *supō, *supōn.^[3][4]

Etymology

Wiktionary calls it a nominal formation from Proto-Germanic *sūpaną (“to drink, sip”),^[1] and Orel also derives it from that verb.^[2]

Morphology

A masculine n-stem.^[2][4]

Evidence

The noun is attested in North and West Germanic: Old Norse sopi (“mouthful”) and Old English sopa (“sup, draught”),^[2] with Middle Low German sope, Middle Dutch sope and Old High German gasofo (“drink”), as de Vries and Lehmann list them.^[5][6] Gothic has only the weak verb Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐍀𐍉𐌽 (supōn, “to season”), which Orel derives from the noun.^[2][7] According to Wiktionary the word was borrowed as Latin suppa, the source of Old French supe.^[1] Feist also held that the Romance word for "soup", French soupe, presupposes a borrowed Germanic word for "broth".^[7]

Competing analyses

The verb itself is unclear: Orel calls its origin not clear,^[8] Mailhammer puts *sūpa- among the strong verbs with no IE etymology,^[9] and Ringe finds no plausible cognates outside Germanic.^[10] Kroonen considers the strong verb a back-formation to the iterative *supp/bōn- "to soak", which he relates to Sanskrit सूप (sūpa, “sauce, soup, broth”) through a compound of the PIE roots Proto-Indo-European *sewH- (“to pour”) and Proto-Indo-European *peh₃- (“to drink”).^[11] De Vries also compares the Sanskrit word.^[5] Orel finds the Sanskrit word similar to his *sūpō(n) "soup", but says the voiceless -p- makes a problem.^[8]

Meanings

1. soup, broth^[1]
2. gulp, potion^[3]

The Old Norse and Old English words mean "mouthful, sup, draught".^[2][12] The sense "sop", a morsel soaked in liquid, belongs to the related feminine *suppǭ "soup, broth, sop",^[13] Orel's *suppōn, continued in Old Norse soppa (“sop”) and Old English soppe (“sop”).^[2]

Derivatives

• *supōjanan "to season", in Orel, continued in Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐍀𐍉𐌽 (supōn) and Old High German soffōn (“to spice, to embalm”).^[2]
• *suppǭ "soup, broth, sop", related to it.^[13][2]

Reflexes

• Old Norse: sopi (“gulp, mouthful”)^[5]
• Old English: sopa (“draught, drink”)^[12]
• Old Saxon: *sopo, in Wiktionary's list^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *supô
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 388
3. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *sūpō-
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sopa
5. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 530
6. ^ Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. 359
7. ^ a b Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. supon
8. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 389
9. ^ Mailhammer, Robert (2007), The Germanic Strong Verbs: Foundations and Development of a New System, Trends in Linguistics 183, Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter, p. 217
10. ^ Ringe, Don (2017), From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 255
11. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 493
12. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. sopa
13. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *suppǭ