sot

Etymology

From Middle English sot, from Old English sot, sott (“foolish, stupid”), from Medieval Latin sottus (“foolish”), of obscure origin and relation. Possibly an expressive interjection, similar to French zut! (“damn it!”). Compare Middle Low German sot (“insane, foolish, stupid”), Middle Dutch sot ("foolish, absurd, stupid"; > modern Dutch zot (“silly”)), French sot (“stupid, foolish, goofy”).

noun

1. (archaic) stupid person; fool
   c. 1670-1680, John Oldham, The Eighth Satire of Monsieur Boileau, imitated In Egypt oft has seen the Sot bow down, And reverence some deified Baboon.
2. drunkard
   Every sign That calls the staring sots to nasty wine. 1684, Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon, Essay on Translated Verse
   Take a picture by Teniers, of sots quarrelling over their dice; it is an entirely clever picture; so clever that nothing in its kind has ever been done equal to it; but it is also an entirely base and evil picture. April 21, 1864, John Ruskin, "Traffic", Unto This Last and Other Writings, New York: Penguin (1997), p. 235

verb

1. To drink until one becomes drunk
2. To stupefy; to infatuate; to besot.