soup

Etymology 1

The noun is from Middle English soupe, sowpe, from Old French soupe, souppe, sope, from Late Latin suppa (“sopped bread”), from Proto-Germanic *supô (compare Middle Dutch sope (“broth”)). Doublet of zuppa. See also sop and supper. The verb is from the noun.

noun

1. Any of various dishes commonly made by combining liquids, such as water or stock with other ingredients, such as meat and vegetables, that contribute flavor and texture.
   1. (countable) A serving of such a dish, typically in a bowl.
   2. (uncountable) The liquid part of such a dish; the broth.
2. (figurative) Any mixture or substance suggestive of soup consistency.
   1. (slang) Thick fog or cloud (also pea soup).
   2. (US, slang) Nitroglycerine or gelignite, especially when used for safe-cracking.
   3. (cant) Dope or cocaine.
   4. (photography) Processing chemicals into which film is dipped, such as developer.
   5. (biology) A liquid or gelatinous substrate, especially the mixture of organic compounds that is believed to have played a role in the origin of life on Earth.
      primordial soup
   6. (UK, informal, often with "the") An unfortunate situation; trouble, problems (a fix, a mess); chaos.
      B. Wickham had also the disposition and general outlook on life of a ticking bomb. In her society you always had the uneasy feeling that something was likely to go off at any moment with a pop. You never knew what she was going to do next or into what murky depths of soup she would carelessly plunge you. … “It may be fun for her,” I said with one of my bitter laughs, “but it isn't so diverting for the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she plunges so ruthlessly in the soup.” 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter I and X
   7. (surfing) The foamy portion of a wave.

verb

1. (uncommon) To feed: to provide with soup or a meal.
   I'm blessed if I've heard about any thing but kangaroo-tail soup all the while I was at Launceston. They souped me there night and day. 1845, Charles Rowcroft, Tales of the Colonies: Or, The Adventures of an Emigrant, page 432
   Now laughing together thaws our human ice; long before Swindon it was a talking match, —at Swindon who so devoted as Captain Dolignan,—he handed them out—he souped them,—he tough-chickened them,—he brandied and cochinealed one, and he brandied and burnt-sugared the other; 1896, Charles Reade, Readiana; Comments on Current Events, page 2
   I was so mad, I let him wait half an hour to-night before I souped him. 1904 October, “East is East and West is West”, in The Vassar Miscellany, volume 34, number 1, page 236
   She cooked huge stock pots and souped her dogs once a day. 2011, Diza Sauers, Historama, page 152
   I souped the dogs, and went in for a bite. I ended up going back out and making my pups a full meal, then went back in and pigged out myself. 2008, C Mark Chapoton, A Tale of Two Iditarods, page 34
2. (photography) To develop (film) in a (chemical) developing solution.
   That girl Vivienne, by the way, once worked as a secretary in the workshop of The Rotarian, began "souping" her own snapshots at home, went from there to top rank as a New York color photographer specializing in small children […] 1970 December, The Rotarian, volume 117, number 6, page 31
   "Then perhaps it won't surprise you to learn Annie's taking over the Sunday social column," Roz said. "You photo-guys'll be souping her film." 1991, Ruth Jean Dale, Society Page
   And her camera position had been completely out of his sight. Satisfied that she'd gotten everything she'd needed - much more, in fact - she went back inside and got to work. Jill had souped her first photographs while she'd been on […] 1998, Edward Gorman, Cold Blue Midnight
   By 6 pm Beau and I are back at the paper, souping the film, when Woody rushes into the room. 2005, Jock Lauterer, Community Journalism: A Personal Approach, page 242
3. (obsolete) To proselytize by feeding the impoverished as long as they listen to one's preaching.
   Was the priest who denounced those books of the National Board as "souping books" the patron of a national school? 1855, William Le Poer Trench, A Digest of the Evidence, Taken Before the Select Committee of the House of Lords, page 280
   "Souping" in Peterstown came to an end, and Una had enough to do with her full school and ignorant scholars to deaden the sting of her grief for the time. 1864, Emily Bowles, Irish Diamonds, Or, A Chronicle of Peterstown, page 203
   It was suggested that the briefs should be distributed generally; but they could not be spread as they were at Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds, where briefs where "souped" out. 1871, Thomas Curson Hansard, Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, page 1751
   Yes, and it was all done in pure charity, no souping swaddling mixture whatever. The Fitz-Ffoulkes had none of that about them . 1877, Mary Hartley, The Hon. Miss Ferrard, page 101
   Before long we passed a Scripture-reader (such the driver said he was), reading a book as a priest does his breviary. I though him not out of place; for anything madder than the whole system of "souping" it is hard to imagine. In Kerry you see signs of it here and there, as you do in Connemara. 1887 January, “November in Kerry”, in Time: A Monthly Magazine, volume 5, page 36
   I ask, Sir, what right has the hon. Member to call any Protestant minister a souping parson?. 1891, Thomas Curson Hansard, Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, page 838

Etymology 2

From Middle English soupen, from Old English sūpan (“to sup, sip”), from Proto-Germanic *sūpaną. More at sup.

verb

1. Alternative form of sup (“to sip; to take a small amount of food or drink into the mouth, especially with a spoon”).

Etymology 3

From Middle English soupe, from Old English sūpe (“sup; draught”).

noun

1. Alternative form of sup (“a sip; a small amount of food or drink”).

Etymology 4

From Middle English swopen, from Old English swāpan (“to sweep”), from Proto-Germanic *swaipaną (“to sweep”). More at sweep.

verb

1. (obsolete) To sweep.
   He vaunts his voice upon an hired stage, With high-set steps and princely carriage, Now souping in side robes of royalty. 1597, Joseph Hall, Virgidemiarum
   Methinks I hear swart Martius cry, Souping along in war's fein'd maskerie, By Lais starrie front he'll forthwith die. 1598, John Marston, The Scourge of Villanie
   We can tell of those cheap-dieted men, that live about the head of Ganges, without meat, without mouths, feeding only upon air at their nostrils; or of those headless eastern people, that have their eyes in their breast; a mis-conceit arising from their fashion of attire, which I have sometimes seen; or those Coromandae, of whom Pliny speaks, that cover their whole body with their ears; or of the persecutors of St. Thomas of Canterbury, whose posterity, if we believe the confident writings of Degrassalius, are born with long and hairy tails, souping after them; which, I imagine, gave occasion to that proverbial jest, wherewith our mirth uses to upgraid the Kentish; or of Amazons; or Pigmies; or Satyrs; 1808, Joseph Hall, Josiah Pratt, “Quo Vadis? A Censure of Travel”, in Miscellaneous works, page 238

Etymology 5

From Middle English soupen, suppen, from Anglo-Norman super, from supe, soupe (“soup”) + -er (verb-forming suffix).

verb

1. Rare form of sup (“to take supper”).
   When I cam that tym to the court, I fand my Lord Due of Orkney sitting at his supper. He said I had bene a gret stranger, desyring me to sit down and soup with him. The Erie of Huntly, the justice-clark, and dyvers uthers, wer sitten at the table with him. I said that I had already souped. a. 1618, Mark Napier, quoting James Melville, chapter III, in Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston, His Lineage, Life, and Times, with a History of the Invention of Logarithms, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: Thomas Cadell, published 1834, page 116
   Breakfasted with Rogers, who asked me to dine to-day and tomorrow—promised for both days—Most agreeably surprised by a note from my friend Tom Boyse, who is in London with his sister—Called upon them & found to my disappointment they were to be off again so soon as tomorrow—Offered myself for dinner to-day though with the fear of Rogers before my eyes, to whom I wrote to announce my defection and its cause—Only the Boyses themselves, young Carew (Lord Carew’s son) who souped with us, being obliged to set off immediately to the new Opera—[…] 12 May 1842, Thomas Moore, “1842⁠”, in Wilfred S. Dowden, Barbara G. Bartholomew, Joy L. Linsley, editors, The Journal of Thomas Moore, volumes 5 (1836–1842), Newark, Del.: University of Delaware Press; London; Toronto, Ont.: Associated University Presses, published 1988, page 2245
   For weeks I had breakfasted, lunched, dined, and souped on mutton. 1904, H[ans] H[ermann] Behr, “Ethnology”, in The Hoot of the Owl, San Francisco, Calif.: A. M. Robertson, page 104