"S" Word Origins

sore

Old English

From Old English sar ("pain, wound"), related to German sehr ("very") — the two words split from the same root, one keeping the sense of pain and the other becoming an intensifier.

sorely

Old English

From Old English sarlice, built from sore + the adverb suffix -ly.

Soren

Latin

A Danish and Norwegian form ultimately derived from Latin Severus, meaning "stern" or "severe."

soreness

Origin

From Middle English sornes, sornesse, sarnesse, from Old English sārnes (“bodily pain; mental pain, affliction, grief”), from Proto-West Germanic *sairanassī, equivalent to sore + -ness. Cognate with Scots sairness (“soreness”), Old Frisian sērnisse, sērnesse (“injury, lesion”), Middle Low German sêrnisse, sêrenisse (“wounding, injury, distress, need”).

Sorenson

Origin

Borrowed from Danish Sørensen, equivalent to Danish Søren + -son.

sorghum

Origin

From New Latin genus name Sorghum, from Italian sorgo, from Vulgar Latin *syricum (“Syrian”), from Sȳricus. Doublet of the synonyms sorgho (via French) and sorgo (via Italian).

Soriano

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish Soriano, from soriano (“inhabitant in Soria”).

SORN

English

An acronym of Statutory Off Road Notification.

sorority

Latin

From Latin soror ("sister"), the female counterpart of "fraternity."

sorrel

Old French

From Old French sorel, related to "sour" — a nod to the plant's tart leaves.

Sorrento

Latin

From the Italian place name Sorrento, ultimately from the Latin Surrentum, of uncertain older origin.

sorriness

Origin

From Middle English sorinesse, from Old English sāriġnes, from Proto-West Germanic *sairaganassī, *sairīganassī; equivalent to sorry + -ness. Cognate with West Frisian searigens (“soreness, tenderness”).

sorrow

Old English

From Old English sorg ("care, grief"). Despite the resemblance, it is not historically related to "sorry" or "sore."

sorrowful

Origin

From sorrow + -ful, built the same way as "hopeful" or "joyful."

sorrowfully

Origin

Inherited from Middle English sorwefully; by surface analysis, sorrowful + -ly.

sorrowfulness

Origin

Inherited from Middle English sorwefulnesse; by surface analysis, sorrowful + ness.

sorrowsome

Origin

From sorrow + -some. Compare Dutch zorgzaam (“careful; considerate”), German sorgsam (“careful”).

sorry

Old English

From Old English sarig ("feeling grief, sad"), related to "sore" rather than to "sorrow," despite the similar meanings.

sort

Latin

From Old French sorte ("class, kind"), from Latin sors ("lot, fate, share, category").

sorta

Origin

A written form of a reduction of sort of.

sortie

Latin

From French sortie ("act of going out"), from sortir ("to exit"), ultimately from Latin sortiri ("to draw lots").

sortilege

Origin

From Old French sortilège, from Medieval Latin sortilegium (“witchcraft”), from Latin sortilegus (“sorcerer, diviner”), from sors (“fate”) + legere (“choose”).

sortilegious

Origin

From French sortilègeux.

sory

Ancient Greek

Borrowed through Latin from Ancient Greek sôru, referring to a type of mineral ore.

SOS

Origin · 1900

Chosen in the early 1900s purely because its Morse pattern (three dots, three dashes, three dots) is short and easy to send and recognize — not, despite popular belief, an abbreviation for "save our souls" or "save our ship."

Sosa

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish Sosa, from Portuguese Sousa.

soss

Origin

From Middle English sosse, sos, soos (“hounds' meat; a mess of food”), of uncertain origin. See sesspool.

sot

French

From Old English sott ("foolish person"), of obscure origin, related to French sot ("stupid, foolish").

Sotheby

Old Norse

"The man who lives south in the village", from Old Norse suðr i bý (“south in the village”). The surname presumably comes from a now defunct placename in England.

Soto

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese 曹洞.

Sotto

Origin

Ellipsis of sotto voce.

sou

French

Borrowed from French sou, a coin worth one-twentieth of a livre.

souffle

French

From French souffle ("a breath, a blowing"), from souffler ("to blow").

sough

Origin

From Middle English *sough, swough, swogh, from Middle English swoȝen, swowen, from Old English swōgan (“to make a sound; move with noise; rush; roar”), from Proto-West Germanic *swōgan, from Proto-Germanic *swōganą from Proto-Indo-European *sweh₂gʰ-, same source as English echo (via Ancient Greek). Cognate with Scots souch (“sough”), Icelandic súgur (“a rushing sound, rustle”). Noun replaced Middle English swei, sweȝ from Old English swēg. More at swoon.

soul

Old English

From Old English sawol ("soul, life, spirit"), a Germanic word of uncertain ultimate origin.

soulful

Origin

From soul + -ful.

soulless

Old English

From soul + -less, going back to an Old English word with the same meaning.

soulmate

Origin · 1822

A combination of "soul" and "mate," first used by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1822, though it didn't become common until the 1980s.

soulscot

Origin

From Middle English saulesoth, *soulescot, from sāwolsċeatt (“an ecclesiastical due, to be paid for every deceased person to the clergy of the church to which he belonged, in consideration of the services performed by them in his behalf”), equivalent to soul + scot.

sound

Latin

The "healthy/solid" and "strait of water" senses both trace to Old English words for "healthy" and a Germanic word for a narrow channel; the "noise" sense comes from a separate Latin root (sonus), making "sound" effectively three different words that merged in spelling.

sounder

Origin

From sound (in the sense of "to measure depth") + -er.

sounding

Origin

From sound (in the sense "to measure depth" or "produce a sound") plus the suffix -ing.

soundly

Old English · 1500

From Old English gesundlice ("safely, in good health"), from the same root as sound (healthy, intact). The word originally meant "safely" and shifted to its modern "thoroughly" sense around the 1500s.

soundness

Origin

From Middle English soundenes, soundnes, from Old English *sundnes, *ġesundnes (attested in onsundnes), from Proto-West Germanic *sundnassī (“soundness, health”); equivalent to sound + -ness. Cognate with West Frisian sûnens (“soundness, health”), Middle Low German suntnisse (“soundness, health”), Middle High German suntnisse (“soundness, health”), German Gesundnis (“health”).

soundproof

Origin

From sound + -proof, on the pattern of waterproof and fireproof.

soundtrack

Origin

From sound + track — originally the physical strip along a film reel that carried the recorded audio.

soup

Late Latin

From Old French soupe ("sopped bread"), from Late Latin suppa, related to "sop" and "supper."

soupiness

Origin

From soupy + -ness.