sup

See also: Appendix:Variations of "sup"

Translingual

Etymology

Clipping of English supremum, from Latin supremum.

Symbol

sup

1. (mathematics) A supremum.

   Antonym: inf

Synonyms

• (in a lattice) ∨

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sʌp/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌp
• Homophone: 'sup
• IPA^(key): (abbreviations of supremum and of words beginning with super-) /sup/

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *sew-?

Proto-Indo-European *sewH-

Proto-Indo-European *peh₃-

Proto-Indo-European *su(H)ph₃néh₂-der.?

Proto-Germanic *suppōną

Proto-Germanic *sūpaną

Proto-West Germanic *sūpan

Old English sūpan

Middle English soupen

English sup

The verb is from Middle English soupen, from Old English sūpan (“to sip, drink, taste”), from Proto-Germanic *sūpaną (compare Dutch zuipen (“to drink, tipple, booze”), German saufen (“to drink, booze”), Swedish supa (“to drink, swallow”)), from Proto-Indo-European *sub-, compare Sanskrit सूप (sū́pa, “soup, broth”), from *sewe (“to take liquid”). More at suck.

The noun is from the verb. There is no evidence of continuity with Old English supa. Compare Middle English soupe, from Old English sūpe, which has the same meaning as Middle English sope (“a mouthful or small amount of drink”), from Old English sopa, whence sop.

Verb

sup (third-person singular simple present sups, present participle supping, simple past and past participle supped)

1. To sip; to take a small amount of food or drink into the mouth, especially with a spoon.
   • 1646, Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple:

     There I'll sup / Balm and nectar in my cup.

   • 1893, Norman Gale, “A Walk”, in Orchard Songs, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews & John Lane; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 43:

     We stood upon the forehead of the hills, / And lifted up our hearts in prayer; / And as we halted, reverent, / Meseemed that Nature o’er us bent, / That she did bid us sup / From bread she gave and from her cup.

   • 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 80:

     And as she supped her tea she smiled discreetly at him over the brim.

   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 60:

     On market days the farmers would come in before going home - Tysons and Lindsays and Birketts and Longmires and Boows and Dawsons - and their dogs would lie in heaps on the flags while they themselves supped Gerald's ale.

Alternative forms

• soup

Noun

sup (countable and uncountable, plural sups)

1. A sip; a small amount, of food or drink, water or rain.
   • 1890, Joseph Jacobs, “Childe Rowland”, in English Fairy Tales, page 123:

     Not a sup will I swallow, nor a bit will I bite, till Burd Ellen is set free.

   • 1896, Jane Barlow, Mrs. Martin's Company, page 95:

     Is it stoppin' there you'd be till every sup of the say's dhrained out on us to beyant the King Pharaoh's Islands?

   • 1898, Wilfred Woollam, “Fragments from Two Hearts”, in Child Illa and Other Poems, Sheffield: J. Arthur Bain; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd., page 163:

     “Then, who,” the sick man meekly said, / “Shall heal the sick and hide the dead?— / “Snatch the despairer’s poisoned cup; / Clothe shame, and give the outcast sup?⁠— / “Lighten, if only by a hair, / The load of human pain and care?”

   • a. 1936, J[oseph] S[mith] Fletcher, “Assault of Hannah’s Castle”, in The Mill House Murder: Being the Last of the Adventures of Ronald Camberwell, Alfred A[braham] Knopf, Inc., published 1937, page 234:

     We’re sisters in a sort and I’ll take Louie home with me and give her sup and shelter.

   • 1906, Emily Lawless, The Book of Gilly: Four Months Out of a Life, page 60:

     ... an' we'll bathe them eyes of yours with a sup of rain water, the way when you go indoors ne'er a one will see there's been a ha'porth the matter.

   • 1936, George Orwell, chapter 8, in Keep the Aspidistra Flying:

     A long, long sup of beer flowed gratefully down his gullet.

   • 2010, Graley Herren, “Beckett on Television”, in S[tanley] E. Gontarski, editor, A Companion to Samuel Beckett, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, part IV (Acts of Performance), page 396:

     The hands touch B upon the head, give him sup from a cup and wipe his brow with a cloth, and finally embrace him as he slumps back down upon his desk.

   • 2022, Claire Keegan, Foster:

     'Wouldn't the fields be glad of a sup of rain.' 'Won't we have the rain for long enough.'

Alternative forms

• soup

Etymology 2

Etymology tree

Anglo-Norman superbor.

Middle English soupen

English sup

From Middle English soupen, suppen, Anglo-Norman super, from supe, soupe. More at soup.

Verb

sup (third-person singular simple present sups, present participle supping, simple past and past participle supped)

1. To eat supper.
   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

     ...I propose we should have up the cold pie, and let him sup.

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC:

     I pray you, be seated and sup how you please. You will, I trust, excuse me that I do not join you; but I have dined already, and I do not sup.

Alternative forms

• soup (rare)

Derived terms

• oversup
• suppage
• unsupped

Translations

eat supper, dine

• Armenian: ընթրել (hy) (əntʻrel)
• Bulgarian: вечерям (večerjam)
• Finnish: illastaa (fi), illallistaa (fi)
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: δειπνέω (deipnéō)

• Latin: cenō (la)
• Pannonian Rusyn: вечерац impf or pf (večerac)

Etymology 3

Procopic form of what's up (“how are you doing?”)

Interjection

sup?

2. (slang) what's up (either as a greeting or actual question)

   Synonyms: t'sup, wassup, w'sup, wudup

   — Sup?
   — Not much.

Alternative forms

• ssup, 'sup, s'up, zup

Etymology 4

From s- +‎ up.

Adjective

sup (not comparable)

1. (physics) Being or relating to the squark that is the superpartner of an up quark.

   Antonym: sdown

Derived terms

• sup squark

Etymology 5

First syllable of superintendent.

Noun

sup (plural sups)

1. (informal) Superintendent.
   • 1932, Edward Livermore Burlingame, Robert Bridges, Alfred Dashiell, Scribner's Magazine - Volume 91, page 64:

     They had put in the stretch-out and they were laying people off and there was talk of a union. "Let's have a union." "Mr. Shaw won't stand for it. The sup won't stand for it."

   • 2011, M. Thomas, Not Today, →ISBN, page 212:

     Cpl. Perez, the radio sup said, "Everything checks out OK, Sarge. We're up and working."

   • 2012, Caroline Court, Rescuing Park Ranger Billie, →ISBN, page 55:

     But here comes the deputy vehicle, cruising right up to the shelter on the bike path. The sup is a retired county sheriff's deputy.

Alternative forms

• supe

Etymology 6

First syllable of superior.

Noun

sup (plural sups)

1. (mathematics) Supremum, upper limit.
   • 2001, Mr. Paul Cashin, Mr. C. John McDermott, The Long-Run Behavior of Commodity Prices, →ISBN:

     Values for the sup W statistic in excess of the 5 percent critical value (2.75 for booms and 2.77 for slumps) indicate rejection of the null hypothesis of no change in the dureation of booms and slumps in real commodity prices.

   • 2003 -, Serge Lang -, Complex Analysis, →ISBN, page 271:

     For a wide class of connected open sets U, not necessarily simply connected, one proves the existence of a harmonic function on U having given boundary value (satisfying suitable integrability conditions) by taking the sup of the subharmonic functions having this boundary value.

Derived terms

• lim sup

Etymology 7

Clipping of supplement.

Noun

sup (plural sups)

1. (bodybuilding, colloquial) Supplement.

Descendants

• → German: Sup

Etymology 8

First syllable of supervision.

Noun

sup (plural sups)

1. (Cambridge University slang) A supervision.

Alternative forms

• supe
• supp

See also

• lup sup (etymologically unrelated to any of the above terms)
• sup kambing (etymologically unrelated to any of the above terms)
• sup tulang (etymologically unrelated to any of the above terms)

Anagrams

• PSU, PUS, PUs, UPS, UPs, USP, psu, pus, ups

Albanian

Alternative forms

• cup — Gheg

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *tsupa, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱupos (compare English hip, Ancient Greek κύβος (kúbos, “vertebra, hollow before the hip (in cattle)”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sup/

Noun

sup m (plural supe, definite supi, definite plural supet)

1. (anatomy) shoulder

   Synonyms: mushk, shpatull

Declension

Declension of sup

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	sup	supi	supe	supet
accusative		supin
dative	supi	supit	supeve	supeve
ablative			supesh

Further reading

• “sup”, in FMGJSH: Fjalor i madh i gjuhës shqipe (in Albanian), 2026
• Newmark, Leonard (1999), “sup”, in Oxford Albanian-English Dictionary‎^[1], Oxford: Oxford University Press

Czech

Sup

Etymology

Inherited from Old Czech sup, from Proto-Slavic *sǫpъ (“vulture”). Cognate with Polish sęp, Lower Sorbian sup, Serbo-Croatian sȕp, and Russian сип (sip).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈsup]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -up

Noun

sup m anim (relational adjective supí)

1. vulture

Declension

Declension of sup (hard masculine animate)

	singular	plural
nominative	sup	supi, supové
genitive	supa	supů
dative	supovi, supu	supům
accusative	supa	supy
vocative	supe	supi, supové
locative	supovi, supu	supech
instrumental	supem	supy

Derived terms

• orlosup

Further reading

• “sup”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “sup”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “sup”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2026

Dutch

Alternative forms

• SUP

Etymology

From English SUP, short for standup paddleboard.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

sup m (plural sups, diminutive supje n)

1. (sports) a standup paddleboard

Derived terms

• suppen

Indonesian

Alternative forms

• sop

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch soep (“soup”), from French soupe, from Latin suppa, from Proto-Germanic *supô.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈsup/ [ˈsʊp̚]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -up
• Syllabification: sup

Noun

sup (plural sup-sup)

1. soup (primarily liquid food)

   Satu di antaranya adalah soto dan sup.

   One of them is soto and soup.

Derived terms

Affixations

• disup
• mengesup

Compounds

• sup ayam
• sup bening
• sup berenebon
• sup boga bahari
• sup buntut
• sup ceker
• sup ekor
• sup galantin
• sup gangan
• sup hungaria
• sup iga
• sup ikan
• sup jagung
• sup jamur
• sup kaki kambing
• sup kaleng
• sup kambing
• sup kikil
• sup krim
• sup krim boga bahari
• sup krim kepiting
• sup labu
• sup lentil
• sup lenyekan
• sup lobak
• sup makanan laut
• sup manten
• sup matahari
• sup miso
• sup mutiara
• sup naional
• sup pangsit
• sup pengar
• sup pure
• sup sapi
• sup saudara
• sup senerek
• sup tomat
• sup tunjang
• sup wonton
• sup wortel

Further reading

• “sup”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Italian

Noun

sup m

1. stand up paddleboard

Anagrams

• pus

Lower Sorbian

sup

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *sǫpъ (“vulture”). Cognate with Polish sęp, Czech sup, Serbo-Croatian sȕp, and Russian сип (sip).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sup/

Noun

sup m anim

1. vulture (bird)

Declension

Declension of sup

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	sup	supa	supy
genitive	supa	supowu	supow
dative	supoju	supoma	supam
accusative	supa	supowu	supy, supow
instrumental	supom	supoma	supami
locative	supje	supoma	supach

Further reading

• Muka, Arnošt (1921, 1928), “sup”, in Słownik dolnoserbskeje rěcy a jeje narěcow (in German), St. Petersburg, Prague: ОРЯС РАН, ČAVU; Reprinted Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag, 2008
• Starosta, Manfred (1999), “sup”, in Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag

Nabi

Noun

sup

1. water

References

• transnewguinea.org, citing D. C. Laycock, Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea (1968), Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66

Nigerian Pidgin

Etymology

From English soup.

Noun

sup

1. soup

Serbo-Croatian

Sȕp

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *sǫpъ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sûp/

Noun

sȕp m anim (Cyrillic spelling су̏п)

1. vulture

   Synonyms: lèšinār, str̀vinār

Declension

Declension of sup

	singular	plural
nominative	sȕp	sùpoví
genitive	supa	supova
dative	supu	supovima
accusative	supa	supove
vocative	supe	supovi
locative	supu	supovima
instrumental	supom	supovima

References

• “sup”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2026

Slovak

Sup

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *sǫpъ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sup/, [ˈsup]
• Rhymes: -up

Noun

sup m animal (relational adjective supí)

1. vulture

Declension

Declension of sup
(patterns chlap (singular) and dub (plural))

	singular	plural
nominative	sup	supy
genitive	supa	supov
dative	supovi	supom
accusative	supa	supy
locative	supovi	supoch
instrumental	supom	supmi

Further reading

• “sup”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2026

Swedish

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ʉːp

Noun

sup c

1. (a (complete) drinking of) a drink of hard liquor, a drink

   Synonyms: rackabajsare, pilleknarkare, styrketår

   Jag ska ta mig en sup

   I'm gonna have a drink

   Du verkar stressad, Nisse. Ta dig en sup så att du blir som folk.

   You seem stressed out, Nisse. Have a drink to straighten yourself out.

   2. (a (complete) drinking of) a small amount of hard liquor, typically aquavit or another clear liquor, served in a small glass

      Synonyms: snaps, nubbe, hutt

2. (archaic) a gulp or small quantity of liquid

Usage notes

• Has a somewhat colloquially folksy tone when of having a drink in general.
• Small enough to be drunk in one gulp in (noun sense 1.1), and typically intended to be. Basically a shot, without the modern connotations. Often had with food.

Declension

Declension of sup

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	sup	sups
	definite	supen	supens
plural	indefinite	supar	supars
	definite	suparna	suparnas

Derived terms

• kallsup

Related terms

• supa

Verb

sup

1. imperative of supa

References

• “sup”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “sup”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “sup”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)

Verb

sup

1. imperative of supa

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English soup.

Noun

sup

1. soup

Volapük

Noun

sup (genitive supa, plural sups)

1. soup

Declension

Declension of sup

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	sup	sups
Genitive	supa	supas
Dative	supe	supes
Accusative	supi	supis
Predicative1	supu	supus
Vocative	o sup	o sups

1. Introduced in Volapük Nulik.

Further reading

• “sup”, in Vödabuk (in English, Esperanto, and Volapük)