sowl

English

WOTD – 3 October 2018

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English sǒuel, souvel, suvel (“food eaten with bread; food in general”), from Old English sufel, sufol (“anything (especially relish) eaten with bread; sowl”),[1] from Proto-Germanic *suflą (“entremets, viands”), from Proto-Indo-European *seu-, *sew- (“juice; moisture; rain”). The word is cognate with Danish sul (“sowl”), Middle Dutch suvel, zuvel (modern Dutch zuivel (“dairy products”)), Middle Low German suvel, süvel, suffel (“sowl”), Old High German sufil, sufili, Old Norse sufl, Norwegian suvl, sovl, sul (“milk porridge; food eaten with bread, porridge or soup”), Saterland Frisian süfel (“dairy products”), Swedish sofvel, sovel (“sowl”), West Frisian suvel (“dairy products”).

Noun

sowl (plural sowls) (Britain, dialectal)

  1. A dainty; a relish; a sauce; anything eaten with bread.
  2. Something tasty added to liquid or semi-liquid food; the food so seasoned.
  3. Any moist, liquid food; a pottage.
  4. Any liquid that is drunk; a beverage, a drink.
Alternative forms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English soul, soule, sowel, sawel (“soul”).[2] See further at soul.

Noun

sowl (plural sowls)

  1. Archaic spelling of soul.

Etymology 3

A farmer sowling or pulling the ears of an orphaned piglet to teach it not to jump on people. This sort of disciplining would ordinarily have been done by the piglet’s mother.

Origin unknown; compare German zaulen, zauseln, zausen (“to tug, drag”). See also tousle.

Verb

sowl (third-person singular simple present sowls, present participle sowling, simple past and past participle sowled)

  1. (transitive) To pull (especially an animal) by the ears; to drag about.
Translations

Etymology 4

Origin unknown; compare sullow and sully, and West Flemish sowelen, suwelen.

Verb

sowl (third-person singular simple present sowls, present participle sowling, simple past and past participle sowled)

  1. (obsolete) To soil or stain; to dirty.
    Synonyms: sullow, sully

References

  1. ↑ “sǒuel, n.(2)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 29 May 2018.
  2. ↑ “soul(e, n.” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 29 May 2018.

Anagrams

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