sup
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sʌp/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- Rhymes: -ʌp
- Homophone: 'sup
- IPA(key): (abbreviations of supremum and of words beginning with super-) /sup/
Etymology 1
The verb is from Middle English soupen, from Old English sūpan (“to sip, drink, taste”), from Proto-Germanic *sūpaną (compare Dutch zuipen (“to drink, tipple, booze”), German saufen (“to drink, booze”), Swedish supa (“to drink, swallow”)), from Proto-Indo-European *sub-, compare Sanskrit सूप (sū́pa, “soup, broth”), from *sewe (“to take liquid”). More at suck.
The noun is from the verb. There is no evidence of continuity with Old English supa.[1] Compare Middle English soupe, from Old English sūpe, which has the same meaning as Middle English sope (“a mouthful or small amount of drink”),[2] from Old English sopa,[3] whence sop.
Verb
sup (third-person singular simple present sups, present participle supping, simple past and past participle supped)
- To sip; to take a small amount of food or drink into the mouth, especially with a spoon.
- 1646, Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple:
- There I'll sup / Balm and nectar in my cup.
- 1893, Norman Gale, “A Walk”, in Orchard Songs, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews & John Lane; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 43:
- We stood upon the forehead of the hills, / And lifted up our hearts in prayer; / And as we halted, reverent, / Meseemed that Nature o’er us bent, / That she did bid us sup / From bread she gave and from her cup.
Alternative forms
Noun
sup (countable and uncountable, plural sups)
- A sip; a small amount of food or drink.
- 1898, Wilfred Woollam, “Fragments from Two Hearts”, in Child Illa and Other Poems, Sheffield: J. Arthur Bain; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd., page 163:
- “Then, who,” the sick man meekly said, / “Shall heal the sick and hide the dead?— / “Snatch the despairer’s poisoned cup; / Clothe shame, and give the outcast sup?— / “Lighten, if only by a hair, / The load of human pain and care?”
- a. 1936, J[oseph] S[mith] Fletcher, “Assault of Hannah’s Castle”, in The Mill House Murder: Being the Last of the Adventures of Ronald Camberwell, Alfred A[braham] Knopf, Inc., published 1937, page 234:
- We’re sisters in a sort and I’ll take Louie home with me and give her sup and shelter.
- 1936, George Orwell, chapter 8, in Keep the Aspidistra Flying:
- A long, long sup of beer flowed gratefully down his gullet.
- 2010, Graley Herren, “Beckett on Television”, in S[tanley] E. Gontarski, editor, A Companion to Samuel Beckett, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, part IV (Acts of Performance), page 396:
- The hands touch B upon the head, give him sup from a cup and wipe his brow with a cloth, and finally embrace him as he slumps back down upon his desk.
Alternative forms
Etymology 2
From Middle English soupen, suppen, Anglo-Norman super, from supe, soupe. More at soup.
Verb
sup (third-person singular simple present sups, present participle supping, simple past and past participle supped)
- To eat supper.
- 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
- ...I propose we should have up the cold pie, and let him sup.
- 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:
- I pray you, be seated and sup how you please. You will, I trust, excuse me that I do not join you; but I have dined already, and I do not sup.
Alternative forms
- soup (rare)
Translations
Interjection
sup?
Adjective
sup (not comparable)
Derived terms
Etymology 5
First syllable of superintendent.
Noun
sup (plural sups)
- (informal) Superintendent.
- 1932, Edward Livermore Burlingame, Robert Bridges, Alfred Dashiell, Scribner's Magazine - Volume 91, page 64:
- They had put in the stretch-out and they were laying people off and there was talk of a union. "Let's have a union." "Mr. Shaw won't stand for it. The sup won't stand for it."
- 2011, M. Thomas, Not Today, →ISBN, page 212:
- Cpl. Perez, the radio sup said, "Everything checks out OK, Sarge. We're up and working."
- 2012, Caroline Court, Rescuing Park Ranger Billie, →ISBN, page 55:
- But here comes the deputy vehicle, cruising right up to the shelter on the bike path. The sup is a retired county sheriff's deputy.
Alternative forms
Etymology 6
First syllable of superior.
Noun
sup (plural sups)
- (mathematics) Supremum, upper limit.
- 2001, Mr. Paul Cashin, Mr. C. John McDermott, The Long-Run Behavior of Commodity Prices, →ISBN:
- Values for the sup W statistic in excess of the 5 percent critical value (2.75 for booms and 2.77 for slumps) indicate rejection of the null hypothesis of no change in the dureation of booms and slumps in real commodity prices.
- 2003 -, Serge Lang -, Complex Analysis, →ISBN, page 271:
- For a wide class of connected open sets U, not necessarily simply connected, one proves the existence of a harmonic function on U having given boundary value (satisfying suitable integrability conditions) by taking the sup of the subharmonic functions having this boundary value.
Derived terms
Etymology 7
Clipping of supplement.
Descendants
- → German: Sup
Etymology 8
First syllable of supervision.
Alternative forms
See also
- lup sup (etymologically unrelated to any of the above terms)
References
- James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928), “Sup (sɐp), sb.”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volumes IX, Part 2 (Su–Th), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 165, column 1: “f. Sup v.1 There is no evidence of continuity with OE. súpa (cf. MLG. sûpe, early mod.Du. zuipe, Du. zuip, ON. súpa).”
- “sǒupe, n.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007: “Etymology OE sūpe / Definitions (Senses and Subsenses) / 1. = sope n.(1).”
- “sō̆pe, n.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007: “Etymology OE sopa / Definitions (Senses and Subsenses) / Note: Cp. soupe n.(2). / 1. A mouthful or small amount of drink; […]”.
Albanian
Etymology
From Proto-Albanian *tsupa, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱupos (compare English hip, Ancient Greek κύβος (kúbos, “vertebra, hollow before the hip (in cattle)”)).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sup/
Noun
Czech
Etymology
Inherited from Old Czech sup, from Proto-Slavic *sǫpъ (“vulture”). Cognate with Polish sęp, Lower Sorbian sup, Serbo-Croatian sȕp, and Russian сип (sip).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈsup]
- Rhymes: -up
Declension
Derived terms
Indonesian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈsʊp̚]
- Hyphenation: sup
Noun
sup (first-person possessive supku, second-person possessive supmu, third-person possessive supnya)
Derived terms
- disup
- mengesup
References
- 2007, Soto & Sup Nusantara-Citarasa tradisional, Gramedia Pustaka Utama (→ISBN), page 3.
Further reading
- “sup” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.
Lower Sorbian
Etymology
From Proto-Slavic *sǫpъ (“vulture”). Cognate with Polish sęp, Czech sup, Serbo-Croatian sȕp, and Russian сип (sip).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sup/
Declension
Further reading
- Muka, Arnošt (1921, 1928) “sup”, in Słownik dolnoserbskeje rěcy a jeje narěcow (in German), St. Petersburg, Prague: ОРЯС РАН, ČAVU; Reprinted Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag, 2008
- Starosta, Manfred (1999) “sup”, in Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag
Nabi
References
- transnewguinea.org, citing D. C. Laycock, Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea (1968), Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66
Serbo-Croatian
Etymology
Inherited from Proto-Slavic *sǫpъ.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sûp/
Declension
References
- “sup” in Hrvatski jezični portal
Slovak
Etymology
Inherited from Proto-Slavic *sǫpъ.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsup/
Noun
sup m inan (genitive singular supa, nominative plural supy, genitive plural supov, declension pattern of dub)
Usage notes
- The usage of the 2nd declension pattern is limited to fairy tales and children stories.
Declension
Derived terms
Further reading
- “sup”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2024
Swedish
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -ʉːp
Noun
sup c
- (a (complete) drinking of) a drink of hard liquor, a drink
- Synonyms: rackabajsare, pilleknarkare, styrketår
- Jag ska ta mig en sup
- I'm gonna have a drink
- Du verkar stressad, Nisse. Ta dig en sup så att du blir som folk.
- You seem stressed out, Nisse. Have a drink to straighten yourself out.
- (archaic) a gulp or small quantity of liquid
Usage notes
- Has a somewhat colloquially folksy tone when of having a drink in general.
- Small enough to be drunk in one gulp in (sense 1.1), and typically intended to be. Basically a shot, without the modern connotations. Often had with food.
Declension
Declension of sup | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
Nominative | sup | supen | supar | suparna |
Genitive | sups | supens | supars | suparnas |