sup – English noun declension

English noun forms of sup

Noun: sup
Singularsup
Pluralsups

Sample Sentences

  • Not a sup will I swallow, nor a bit will I bite, till Burd Ellen is set free. [1890, Joseph Jacobs, “Childe Rowland”, in English Fairy Tales, page 123:]
  • Is it stoppin' there you'd be till every sup of the say's dhrained out on us to beyant the King Pharaoh's Islands? [1896, Jane Barlow, Mrs. Martin's Company, page 95:]
  • “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?” [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:]
  • We’re sisters in a sort and I’ll take Louie home with me and give her sup and shelter. [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:]
  • ... an' we'll bathe them eyes of yours with a sup of rain water, the way when you go indoors ne'er a one will see there's been a ha'porth the matter. [1906, Emily Lawless, The Book of Gilly: Four Months Out of a Life, page 60:]
  • A long, long sup of beer flowed gratefully down his gullet. [1936, George Orwell, chapter 8, in Keep the Aspidistra Flying:]
  • 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. [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:]
  • 'Wouldn't the fields be glad of a sup of rain.' 'Won't we have the rain for long enough.' [2022, Claire Keegan, Foster:]

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *sew-?
3. Proto-Indo-European *sewH-
4. Proto-Indo-European *peh₃-
5. Proto-Indo-European *su(H)ph₃néh₂-der.?
6. Proto-Germanic *suppōną
7. Proto-Germanic *sūpaną
8. Proto-West Germanic *sūpan
9. Old English sūpan
10. Middle English soupen
11. English sup
12. 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.
13. The noun is from the verb. There is no evidence of continuity with Old English supa. Compare Middle English soupe, from Old English sūpe, which has the same meaning as Middle English sope (“a mouthful or small amount of drink”), from Old English sopa, whence sop. See: Old English Nouns 'sūpan', Swedish Nouns 'supa', Old English Nouns 'supa', Middle English Nouns 'soupe', Old English Nouns 'sūpe', Middle English Nouns 'sope', Old English Nouns 'sopa'.