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soda [soda 词源字典]: soda: [16] Soda comes from medieval Latin soda, which may have been derived from Latin sodānum ‘samphire, glasswort’ (the plant samphire was burned to obtain soda for making glass). Another of the uses of samphire was as a headache cure, and it has been speculated that sodānum may have come ultimately from Arabic sudā ‘headache’, a derivative of sada’a ‘split’. Sodium was coined from soda in 1807 by the English chemist Humphry Davy.
=> sodium[soda etymology, soda origin, 英语词源]
sodomy: sodomy: [13] The term sodomy commemorates the ancient Palestinian city of Sodom, which according to the Bible was a hotbed of unnatural vice (‘But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter. And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him. And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof’, Genesis 19:4–8). Anal intercourse and allied practices were known in late Latin as peccātum Sodomīticum ‘sin of Sodom’, and from this was coined the medieval Latin term sodomia – whence English sodomy.

The abusive sod [19] is short for the related sodomite [14].
soft: soft: [OE] Soft goes back to a prehistoric West Germanic *samft-, which also produced German sanft ‘gentle, easy, smooth’ and Dutch zacht ‘soft’. It may go back ultimately to the prehistoric base *sōrn- ‘fitting, agreeable’, source of English seem and seemly.
=> seem, seemly
soil: soil: Soil ‘ground’ [14] and soil ‘make dirty’ [13] are distinct words. The former comes from Anglo-Norman soil ‘land’. This was the formal descendant of Latin solium ‘seat’, but its use for ‘land’ appears to have arisen from confusion with Latin solum ‘ground’. Etymologically, to soil something virtually amounts to making a pigsty of it. The verb comes via Old French souiller from Vulgar Latin *suculāre ‘make dirty’, a derivative of Latin suculus ‘little pig’. This was a diminutive form of sūs ‘pig’, a relative of English sow. French souiller may also be the source of English sully [16].
=> sow, sully
soirée: soirée: see serenade
sojourn: sojourn: [13] To sojourn in a place is etymologically to ‘spend the day’ there. The word comes via Old French sojorner from Vulgar Latin *subdiurnāre ‘spend the day’, a compound verb formed from the Latin prefix sub ‘under’, hence ‘during’, and late Latin diurnum ‘day’ (source of English diurnal, journey, etc).
=> diurnal, journey
solace: solace: see console
solar: solar: [15] Solar comes from Latin sōlāris, a derivative of sōl ‘sun’. This went back to the same ultimate Indo-European base, *su-, that produced English sun. Solarium [19] was borrowed from another Latin derivative, sōlārium, which denoted a ‘sundial’ as well as a ‘balcony, flat rooftop, or other part of a house exposed to the sun’. Solstice [13] means etymologically the ‘sun standing still’. It comes from Latin sōlstitium, a compound formed from sōl and stit-, the past participial stem of sistere ‘make stand’.
=> solarium, solstice
solder: solder: [14] To solder something is etymologically to make it ‘solid’. The word was originally acquired, as a noun, from Old French soldure, a derivative of the verb solder ‘solder’. This in turn came from Latin solidāre ‘make solid, strengthen, fasten’, a derivative of solidus ‘solid’ (source of English solid).
=> soldier, solid
soldier: soldier: [13] The etymological idea underlying the word soldier is the ‘pay’ received by mercenary soldiers. It was borrowed from Old French soudier or soldier, a derivative of soulde ‘pay’. This in turn went back to Latin solidus, a term used for an ancient Roman gold coin; it was short for nummus solidus, literally ‘solid coin’.
=> solid
sole: sole: English has three separate words sole, two of them closely related. Sole ‘underneath of the foot’ [14] comes via Old French sole from Vulgar Latin *sola, a descendant of Latin solea ‘sandal, sill’ (a possible relative of English sill). And this in turn was derived from Latin solum ‘ground, sole of the foot’ (a possible contributor to English soil). Sole ‘flatfish’ [14] was independently borrowed from Old French sole in the sense ‘flatfish’, a metaphorical extension based on the similarity in shape between the fish and the sole of the foot. Sole ‘only’ [14] comes via Old French soul (ancestor of modern French seul ‘only, sole’) from Latin sōlus ‘alone, single’.

The origins of this are uncertain, but it may be related to the pronoun sē ‘oneself’, in which case it could mean etymologically ‘by oneself’. Its other contributions to English include desolate [14], soliloquy [17], solitary [14], solo [17] (via Italian), and sullen.
=> sill; desolate, solitary, solo, sullen
solecism: solecism: [16] Solecism ‘act of (grammatical) impropriety’ comes via Latin soloecismus from Greek soloikismós, a derivative of sóloikos ‘ungrammatical utterance’. This is said to have referred originally to the speech of Athenian colonists in Soloi, in ancient Cilicia, southern Turkey, held by snooty sophisticates back home in Athens to be a debased form of their own speech.
solemn: solemn: [14] Solemn comes via Old French solemne from Latin sollemnis ‘customary’, hence ‘performed with due ceremony on a particular fixed day’. This was derived from sollus ‘whole’ (source also of English solicit).
=> solicit
sol-fa: sol-fa: [16] Sol-fa is a lexicalization of two of the syllables (sol and fa) used in the tonic sol-fa system for representing the notes of the musical scale. In Italian the combination was turned into a verb, solfeggiare, a derivative of which has given English solfeggio ‘use of the sol-fa system’ [18]. (Another English word based on the name of notes of the scale is gamut.)
solicit: solicit: [15] The ultimate source of solicit is Latin sollicitus ‘agitated’, which also gave English solicitous [16]. It was a compound adjective, formed from sollus ‘whole’ (source also of English solemn) and citus, the past participle of ciēre ‘move’ (source of English cite, excite, etc) – hence literally ‘completely moved’.

From it was formed the verb sollicitāre ‘disturb, agitate’, which passed into English via Old French solliciter. By the time it arrived it had acquired the additional meaning ‘manage affairs’, which lies behind the derived solicitor [15]; and the original ‘disturb’ (which has since died out) gave rise in the 16th century to ‘trouble with requests’. French insouciant, borrowed by English in the 19th century, goes back ultimately to Latin sollicitāre.
=> cite, excite, incite, insouciant, solemn, solid
solid: solid: [14] Solid comes via Old French solide from Latin solidus ‘solid, whole’ (source also of English solder and soldier and of the French coin term sou). It went back to the same base (Indo-European *sol-) that produced Latin sollus ‘whole’ (source of English solemn and solicit) and salvus ‘unharmed’ (source of English safe, save, etc).
=> solder, soldier, solemn, solicit
solitary: solitary: see sole
solo: solo: see sole
solstice: solstice: see solar
solve: solve: [15] Etymologically, solve means ‘release’, particularly by the payment of debt. It was borrowed from Latin solvere ‘release, unbind, pay’, which was descended from an earlier *seluere. This was a compound verb based on luere ‘loosen, release, pay’, a descendant of the same Indo-European base that produced English analyse, loose, lose, etc.

The notion of ‘payment of debts’ survives in English solvent [17], and a metaphorical extension of ‘loosening’ to ‘turning a solid into a liquid’ can be seen in soluble [14] and the derivative dissolve [14]. The use of solve for ‘explain’, now the major English sense, emerged in Latin, but it was not a major feature of the Latin verb. Other related forms include absolute, absolve, and resolve [14].
=> absolute, absolve, analyse, dissolve, loose, lose, resolve, solution