Etymology

so-so

Today it means: Neither good nor bad; tolerable, passable, indifferent. Full definition →

Middle English so so ← Old English swā swā
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromswā swā
  2. Middle English · inherited fromso so
  3. English todayso-so

From Middle English so so, from Old English swā swā, equivalent to so + so. Compare Dutch zozo (“so-so”), German soso (“so-so”), Norwegian så som så (“so-so”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.