sugo

Forms

sūgō (present infinitive sūgere, perfect active sūxī, supine sūctum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *souge/o- (“to suck”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *seug-e/o- (“to suck”).^[2] De Vaan finds the root as ⟨*suḱ-⟩ in Celtic, Balto-Slavic and some Germanic words, and as ⟨*sug-⟩ in other Germanic words and in Latin; he thinks a root ⟨*su-⟩ with two different extensions unlikely, and assumes that one variant changed into the other in certain environments.^[2] He reports Schrijver's view that the variation shows that the words for “suck” and “juice” were taken from one or more substrate languages, perhaps with an ultimate source in Uralic.^[2]

Cognate with Old English sūcan, Old High German sūgan and Old Norse súga “to suck”, and with Latvian sùkt.^[2][3] Its closest relative in Latin is sūcus (“juice”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives the comic poet Novius as the first author to use it,^[2] in a line where someone “began to suck the lips” (coepit labia sugere).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb meant to suck a liquid or to suck liquid from something, such as a breast or a plant.^[3] Varro uses it of bees sucking honeyed water through wool and of crops that “suck” the soil, that is, exhaust it;^[3][4] Pliny the Elder of leeches and of ivy that sucks trees dry.^[3] Figuratively, Cicero says that we seem to have sucked in error with our nurse's milk.^[3][4] Palladius uses the participle of a sow worn out by suckling her litter.^[4][5]

It survives in Romance: Wiktionary lists Italian suggere and Romanian suge.^[1]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of bees and of a baby sucking the breast.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of animals feeding and, figuratively, of error sucked in with the nurse's milk.^[3][4][6]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of rubble that dries out timber by drawing off its sap.^[3][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of leeches and of ivy that strangles trees.^[3][6]
• end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD – Palladius uses the participle of an exhausted sow.^[4][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To suck (a liquid).^[3][4]
2. (figurative) To take in, imbibe.^[3][4]
3. To suck liquid from (the breast or the like).^[3][4]
4. (transferred) To draw off the sap or moisture from; to exhaust (the soil).^[3][4]

Word family

• assugo
• desugo
• exsūgō
• sūctus
• sūmen
• suggillō
• sūctiō
• sanguisūga

Related words

• sūcus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de