soot

Etymology

From Middle English soote, sote, sot, from Old English sōt, from Proto-Germanic *sōtą (“soot”), from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”). Cognate with dated Dutch zoet (“soot”), German Low German Soot (“soot”), Danish sod (“soot”), Swedish sot (“soot”), Icelandic sót (“soot”). Compare similar ō-grade formation the same Proto-Indo-European root in Old Irish suide (“soot”) and Balto-Slavic: Lithuanian súodžiai (“soot”), and Proto-Slavic *sadja (“soot”) (Russian са́жа (sáža), Polish and Slovak sadza, Bulgarian са́жда (sážda)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sʊt/, /suːt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊt, -uːt
• Homophone: suit (in some dialects)

Noun

soot (uncountable)

1. Fine black or dull brown particles of amorphous carbon and tar, produced by the incomplete combustion of coal, oil etc.

Verb

soot (third-person singular simple present soots, present participle sooting, simple past and past participle sooted)

1. (transitive) To cover or dress with soot.

   to soot land

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Mortimer to this entry?)

See also

• carbon black

Anagrams

• Oost, SOTO, Soto, Toso