Etymology

soap

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Today it means: A metallic salt derived from a fatty acid, commonly used in cleaning products. Full definition →

Middle English sope ← Old English sāpe ← Proto-West Germanic *saipā
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soap · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*seyb-?
  2. Proto-Germanic*saipǭ
  3. Proto-West Germanic*saipā
  4. Old Englishsāpe
  5. Middle Englishsope
  6. English todaysoap

From Middle English sope, sape, from Old English sāpe (“soap, salve”), from Proto-West Germanic *saipā, from Proto-Germanic *saipǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *seyb-, *seyp- (“to pour out, drip, trickle, strain”). Cognate with Scots saip, sape (“soap”), Saterland Frisian Seepe (“soap”), West Frisian sjippe (“soap”), Dutch zeep (“soap”), German Low German Seep (“soap”), German Seife (“soap”), Danish sæbe (“soap”), Swedish såpa (“soap”), Norwegian Bokmål såpe (“soap”), Norwegian Nynorsk såpe (“soap”), Faroese sápa (“soap”), Icelandic sápa (“soap”), Finnish saippua (“soap”), Finnish suopa (“soft soap”). Related also to Old English sāp (“amber, resin, pomade, unguent”), Latin sēbum (“tallow, fat, grease”). See seep. Latin sāpō (“soap”) is a borrowing from the Germanic.

soap · noun2

Probably an abbreviation of sodium pentothal.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*saipǭ all →

sebaceous

Proto-Indo-European*seyb- all →

sipseepsebaceous

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.