soap

pronunciation

How to pronounce soap in British English: UK [səʊp] word uk audio image

How to pronounce soap in American English: US [soʊp] word us audio image

Noun:

a cleansing agent made from the salts of vegetable or animal fats
money offered as a bribe
street names for gamma hydroxybutyrate
Verb:

rub soap all over, usually with the purpose of cleaning

Word Origin

soap: soap: [OE] The word soap is of West Germanic origin. It comes from a prehistoric *saipō (source also of German seife and Dutch zeep). This may have been related to Old English sīpian ‘drip’, suggesting that it perhaps originally referred to a stage in the manufacture of soap. The Romans, like the Greeks, used oil for cleansing the skin, not soap, and so they did not have their own native word for it. Instead they borrowed the Germanic term, as sāpō, which has evolved into French savon, Italian sapone, and Spanish jabon. Germanic *saipō was also acquired by Latvian (ziepes), Finnish (saippio), and Lappish (saipo).

soap (n.): Old English sape "soap, salve" (originally a reddish hair dye used by Germanic warriors to give a frightening appearance), from Proto-Germanic *saipon "dripping thing, resin" (cognates: Middle Low German sepe, West Frisian sjippe, Dutch zeep, Old High German seiffa, German seife "soap," Old High German seifar "foam," Old English sipian "to drip"), from PIE *soi-bon-, from root *seib- "to pour out, drip, trickle" (cognates: Latin sebum "tallow, suet, grease"). Romans and Greeks used oil to clean skin; the Romance language words for "soap" (cognates: Italian sapone, French savon, Spanish jabon) are from Late Latin sapo "pomade for coloring the hair" (first mentioned in Pliny), which is a Germanic loan-word, as is Finnish saippua. The meaning "flattery" is recorded from 1853.