See also: SOP, and söp

English

edit

Pronunciation

edit

Etymology 1

edit

From Middle English sop, soppe, sope, from Old English sopa (sopped bread), from Proto-Germanic *supô (compare Dutch sop, Old High German sopfa), deverbative of *sūpaną (to sup). More at sup; compare soup.

Noun

edit

sop (countable and uncountable, plural sops)

  1. Something entirely soaked.
  2. A piece of solid food to be soaked in liquid food.
  3. (figurative) Ellipsis of sop to Cerberus; something given or done to pacify or bribe.
    • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Æsop, &c.] Fab[le] LXXXVIII. A Man Bit by a Dog.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: [], London: [] R[ichard] Sare, [], →OCLC, page 85:
      Ill Nature, in fine, is not to be Cur’d with a Sop; but on the contrary, Quarrelſome Men, as well as Quarrelſome Currs are worſe for fair Uſage.
    • 1996, Bernard Knox, Introduction to Robert Fagles's translation of The Odyssey:
      The suggested petrification of the ship is a sop to gratify Poseidon and compensate him for a concession--the Phaeacians will not be cut off from the sea.
    • 2020, Robert Kagan, “China’s dangerous Taiwan temptation”, in Washington Post[1]:
      That agreement, with its lofty promises of “one country, two systems,” was a fig leaf, as most knew at the time — a sop to Western consciences guilty for condemning the people of Hong Kong to their ultimate fate as wards of Beijing. What is happening today is exactly what was predicted and exactly what Chinese leaders intended. Our outrage, while appropriate, is also embarrassing.
    • 2024 January 2, David A. Graham, “An Old-Fashioned Scandal Fells a New Harvard President”, in The Atlantic[2]:
      Conservatives have long had it out for Gay, Harvard’s first Black president, whose appointment they viewed as a sop to progressive diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
  4. (derogatory) Ellipsis of milksop; a weak, easily frightened or ineffectual person.
  5. (Appalachia) Gravy.
  6. (obsolete) A thing of little or no value.
    • 1988 August 20, Rex Wockner, “Nobody Can Do It Like The USA”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 6, page 5:
      Here, in Barcelona, your streets are alive at night, you walk, you eat for hours, you interact, you share your minds. Americans watch their 91 channels of superficial satellite sop. The whole country and everything you've ever believed about it really functions only on the surface.
  7. A piece of turf placed in the road as a target for a throw in road bowling.
Alternative forms
edit
Derived terms
edit
Translations
edit

Verb

edit

sop (third-person singular simple present sops, present participle sopping, simple past and past participle sopped)

  1. (transitive) To steep or dip in any liquid.
    • 1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 29:
      A messe of milke sopt with white bread.
    • 1928, Newman Ivey White, American Negro Folk-Songs, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, page 227:
      When I die, don't bury me deep, / Put a jug of 'lasses at my feet, / And a piece of corn bread in my hand, / Gwine to sop my way to the promised land.
    • 1945 December 27, Emily Post, “Sopping Bread May Be Done”, in The Spokesman-Review[3]:
      So again let me say that sopping bread into gravy can be done properly merely by putting a piece down on the gravy and then soaking it with the help of a knife and fork as though it were any other food. But taking a soft piece of bread and pushing it under the sauce with your fingers, submerging them as well as the bread, or even wiping the plate with it would be very bad manners indeed.
  2. (intransitive) To soak in, or be soaked; to percolate.
Derived terms
edit
Translations
edit

Etymology 2

edit

Noun

edit

sop (plural sops)

  1. (music, informal) Clipping of soprano.

Anagrams

edit

Afrikaans

edit

Etymology

edit

From Dutch sop, from Middle Dutch sop (soup), from Old Dutch *sop, from Proto-Germanic *suppą.

Noun

edit

sop (plural soppe)

  1. soup
  2. broth

Dutch

edit

Etymology

edit

From Middle Dutch sop (soup), from Old Dutch *sop, from Proto-Germanic *suppą. In the sense “water with soap” it is a shortening of zeepsop.

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

sop n (plural soppen, diminutive sopje n)

  1. water with soap, usually for washing
  2. the sea in terms of somebody who will sail on it
    Het ruime sop kiezen.
    To set sail.
  3. (now dialectal) Archaic form of soep.

Derived terms

edit

Descendants

edit
  • Afrikaans: sop

Indonesian

edit

Etymology

edit

From Dutch sop.

Noun

edit

sop (first-person possessive sopku, second-person possessive sopmu, third-person possessive sopnya)

  1. soup

Irish

edit

Etymology

edit

From Middle Irish sop(p), from Latin stuppa (coarse flax, tow).[1]

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

sop m (genitive singular soip, nominative plural soip)

  1. wisp, small bundle (of straw, etc.)
  2. straw bedding; (straw) bed

Declension

edit

Derived terms

edit

Verb

edit

sop (present analytic sopann, future analytic sopfaidh, verbal noun sopadh, past participle soptha)

  1. (transitive) light with straw

Conjugation

edit

Mutation

edit
Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
sop shop
after an, tsop
not applicable
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

edit
  1. ^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “sop”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
  2. ^ Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, § 180, page 91
  3. ^ Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, § 9, page 7

Further reading

edit

Middle English

edit

Noun

edit

sop

  1. small amount of food

Swedish

edit

Noun

edit

sop c

  1. a broom with a (usually rectangular) brush at the end
    Synonyms: sopborste, sopkvast
    Hämta sopen
    Get the broom
  2. (colloquial) a container for garbage
    Synonym: (more common) soporna
    Släng den i sopen!
    Throw it in the bin!

Declension

edit

See also

edit

References

edit

Tok Pisin

edit

Etymology

edit

From English soap.

Noun

edit

sop

  1. cleaner
    sop bilong tittoothpaste

West Frisian

edit

Etymology

edit

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

edit

sop n (plural soppen, diminutive sopke)

  1. juice
  2. soup

Derived terms

edit

Further reading

edit
  • sop”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

West Uvean

edit

Etymology

edit

From English soap.

Noun

edit

sop

  1. soap

References

edit
  • Claire Moyse-Faurie, Borrowings from Romance languages in Oceanic languages, in Aspects of Language Contact (2008, →ISBN