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souse

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souse¹

  • /saʊs/

Sounds like sowse · Rhymes with -aʊs

Where it comes from

From Middle English souse (“to salt pickle”) also a noun (“liquid for pickling,” “pickled pig parts”), from Old French sous (“preserved in salt”), from Frankish *sultija (“saltwater, brine”), from Proto-Germanic *sultijō (“saltwater, brine”). Cognate with Old Saxon sultia (“saltwater”), Old High German sulza (“brine”).

noun souses

  1. The pickled ears, feet, etc., of swine. And he that can rear up a pig in his house, / Hath cheaper his bacon, and sweeter his souse.
  2. Appalachia, US Pickled scrapple.
  3. Caribbean Pickled or boiled ears and feet of a pig
  4. A pickle made with salt.
  5. The ear; especially, a hog's ear.
  6. The act of sousing; a plunging into water.
  7. A drunkard. "If there's any, giving in charge here I'll give you in charge for sneaking my beer, you slop-bellied old souse!" exclaimed Peter.

Similar: sot, suck-pint

verb souses · sousing · soused

  1. transitive To immerse in liquid; to steep or drench. (Although I bee well soused in this showere,)
  2. transitive To steep in brine; to pickle.

souse²

  • /saʊs/

Sounds like sowse · Rhymes with -aʊs

Where it comes from

Obscure origin. Compare Middle German sûs (“noise”).

noun souses

  1. The act of sousing, or swooping. Eft fierce retourning as a foulcon fayre, / That once hath failed of her souse full neare
  2. A heavy blow. With that his murdrous mace he vp did reare, / That seemed nought the souse thereof could beare,

verb souses · sousing · soused

  1. dialectal, transitive To strike, beat.
  2. dialectal, intransitive To fall heavily. Him so transfixed she before her bore / Beyond his croupe, the length of all her launce; / Till, sadly soucing on the sandy shore, / He tombled on an heape, and wallowd in his gore.
  3. obsolete, transitive To pounce upon. [The gallant monarch] like an eagle o'er his eyrie towers, / To souse annoyance that comes near his nest.

adverb

  1. archaic, dialectal, not comparable Suddenly, without warning. Mr Nash […] suddenly taking the gentleman by the collar of his coat, and waistband of his breeches, threw him souse over the parapet to the object of his love.

souse³

  • /saʊs/

Sounds like sowse · Rhymes with -aʊs

Where it comes from

Borrowed from French, from Old French sous (plural of sout), from Latin solidus. Compare solidus (“gold coin of the late Roman empire”).

noun

  1. obsolete A sou (the French coin).
  2. dated A small amount.

souse⁴

  • /saʊs/

Sounds like sowse · Rhymes with -aʊs

Where it comes from

First appeared online during the Bush administration.

noun

  1. Internet, US, pronunciation spelling Pronunciation spelling of source.source

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