Forms: α. 1, 4 sot (2 soth), 4–6 sote, 5 swot, 6 swote; 1, 4– soot (1 sooth, 5 soeth), 5–7 soote. β. 6 sooute, sout(e, sowte, 7 sutt, 7, 9 sut; Sc. 6 suit, 6, 8– sute, 9 shute; 9 dial. seut, seeat. [OE. sót, = MDu. soet, zoet (Du. dial. zoet), NFris. sött, sutt, ON. and Icel. sót (Norw. and Sw. sot, Da. sod), related to Lith. sódis (usually in pl. sódźei or sódźiei).
The pron. (svt), formerly common, is mentioned by Smart in 1836 as no longer used ‘by the best speakers.’ American dicts. give (sūt) as well as (sut).]
1. A black carbonaceous substance or deposit consisting of fine particles formed by the combustion of coal, wood, oil, or other fuel.
α. c. 725. Corpus Gloss., F 427. Fuligine, sooth.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 356. Meng ðærto sot & sealt & sand.
a. 1200. Sidonius Gl., in Anecd. Oxon., Ser. I. v. 36/8. Fuligo, soth.
c. 1302. Pol. Songs (Camden), 195. Hit falleth the Kyng of Fraunce bittrore then the sote.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 379. Whan al þe chirche was on fuyre, þer fil … noþer sparcle noþer soot uppon Wolston his grave.
c. 1420. Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 618. Hard as any horn, blakker fer then soot.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., I. 849. Oildreggis fresh for gnattis and for snaylis, Or chamber soot is good to kest aboute.
1530. Palsgr., 273/1. Sote of a chymney, svÿe.
1568. Withals, Dict., 43 a/2. Swote, Fuligo.
1582. Bentley, Mon. Matrones, iii. 342. For the time was, when you … liued solitarie, sitting at home among the soote of pots.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 66. Euen as in chimneyes we see by the continuall ascent of soote, long strings of it are gathered as it were into a chaine.
1685. Boyle, Enq. Notion Nat., vi. 190. When in a foul chimney, a lump of soot falls into the hearth.
1765. A. Dickson, Treat. Agric. (ed. 2), 51. Soot is found to be a very rich manure.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 612. Soot remarkably increases the produce of soils abounding with vegetable matter.
1874. trans. Lommel’s Light, 3. The carbon in fine powder will be deposited upon it, forming a layer of soot.
fig. 1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, II. ix. (Skeat), l. 38. Al sugre and hony, al minstralsy and melody ben but soot and galle in comparison.
1586. T. Bright, A Treatise of Melancholie, xxi. 123. Natural actions … are weaker, and as it were smothered with this soote of melancholie.
β. 1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Form., U iij. Some put therto to alter the coloure sute of the chymney.
a. 1585. Montgomerie, Flyting, 292. Weil swyld in a swynes skin and smerit ouer with suit.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. vii. 3. His head and beard with sout were ill bedight.
1648. Gage, West Ind., 142. The smoak … filleth the thatch and the rafters … with sut.
1685. in Verney Mem. (1907), II. 405. Tis soe foul with sutt, smoke, and Dust.
1729. Dampier’s Voy., IV. II. 34. The Hodmandods … make themselves Black with Sut [1697 soot].
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. vi. Distress is for ever a going about, like sut in the air.
† b. (See quots. and cf. NILL sb.1) Obs.
[1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, Spodium, a maner of soute rysyng of the trying of brasse.]
1611. Cotgr., Spode, the heauier foile, soot, or oare of Brasse.
1668. Charleton, Onomast., 300. Spodos Subterranea,… Soot of Brass.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 149/2.
2. With a and pl. a. A particular kind of soot.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 324. This is a soueraigne soot to hinder the growth again of haires.
1671. Grew, Anat. Pl., I. 17. Turpentine,… upon Vstion, sheweth nothing but a black Soot.
1733. Cheyne, Eng. Malady, II. iii. § 4 (1734), 141. The Soots of some or any Woods, are … of the same Nature and Efficacy.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), II. 43. When burned, it affords a soot and leaves a small quantity of a coaly residuum.
b. A flake of soot; a smut.
1906. Daily News, 28 May, 6. An air unsullied by the soots and scents of London.
3. A substance of a sooty appearance or nature.
1597. Middleton, Wisd. Solomon, xii. 11. Too much seede doth turne to too much soote.
1690. Temple, Ess., II. Gardens of Epicurus. I found my Vines … apt for several years to a Soot or Smuttiness upon their leaves.
4. transf. Blackness, darkness.
1789. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Subj. for Painters, Wks. 1812, VII. 157. ’Tis what the Prince of Soot hath often done.
5. attrib. and Comb. a. Attrib., as soot-ashes, -bag, -black, -colo(u)r, -door, -dressing, etc.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 199. *Soot-Ashes … prevent Pis-mires … from invading the Fruit.
1798. Hull Advertiser, 18 Aug., 3/3. A chimney-sweeper put the troublesome gentleman into a *soot-bag.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), V. 156/2. Lamp-black … is the finest of what are called the *soot-blacks.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Minimes, Couleur de minimes, a light *soot colour, hauing an eye of a gray in it.
1639. T. de Gray, Expert Farrier, 58. Your Mouse-Dunne and such like rusty and sut-colours.
1670. Caveat to Conventiclers, 2. Clad in a duskish Soot-coloure[d] sort of Shamoy.
1781. Latham, Gen. Syn., I. I. 134. Cinereous Owl…. The whole bird appears as if soiled with light soot-colour.
1834. McMurtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 360. Blackish-bronze or soot-colour and silky above.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 593. In that case *soot doors would be necessary in the chimney breast.
1854. Ronalds & Richardson, Chem. Technol. (ed. 2), I. 214. The soot or flue doors, introduced into chimneys for the purposes of cleansing.
1766. Complete Farmer, s.v. Lucern, The preference ought to be given to *soot-dressings.
1722. Ramsay, Three Bonnets, III. 19. *Soot-draps hang frae his roof and kipples.
1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 28 Oct., 1/3. The extremely heavy *sootfall peculiar to the neighbourhood.
1839–52. Bailey, Festus, 56. Like the *soot-flake upon a burning bar.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 399. As for Example, if a Person was to dress … his Sands or Gravels in Summer with *Soot-lime, or Pigeons-dung.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 1249. The operations of the *soot-machine are effected thus [etc.].
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., III. xv. To that dingy fuliginous Operative, emerging from his *soot-mill.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 3. The *soot-particles lie in the perilobular and interlobular tissue.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 273. The seed being soaked in *soot-water.
1755. H. Walpole, Lett. (1846), III. 139. Have you no Indian ink, no soot-water?
1882. The Garden, 22 July, 73/2. Soot water is found to be exceedingly beneficial to Pine-apple plants.
b. Similative, as soot-black, -brown, -dark, † -red [cf. OIcel. sótrauðr], soot-like adjs.
1715. Lond. Gaz., No. 5375/4. Lost…, two Geldings, the one a *Soote black.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 80. The boys through fear in soot-black corners push.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. V. iv. Your dark-yellow Mulattoes? And your Slaves soot-black? Ibid. (c. 1843), Hist. Sk. Jas. I. (1898), 244. All soiled *soot-brown, illegible as the letter-press.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, xxix. His *soot-dark paletôt.
1789. J. Williams, Min. Kingd., I. 211. If you discover a quantity of soft, black, *soot-like matter, you should dig in it.
1837. P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 327. The farina of the grain … is converted into a black soot-like powder.
a. 1400. Octouian, 1045. The launce was *swot red and croked.
c. With ppl. adjs., as soot-bespeckled, -bleared, -grimed, etc.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. I. ii. In that soot-bleared figure, most earnest of created things.
1839. Dickens, Nickleby, xvi. A soot-bespeckled prospect of tiles and chimney-pots.
1871. Kingsley, At Last, xi. Here and there some huge tree had burnt as it stood, and rose like a soot-grimed tower.
d. Objective, as soot-sowing.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 1247. The soot-sowing machine.
6. Special combs.: soot-bag, a reticule (Slang Dict., 1864); soot-cancer, -dew, -wart (see quots.).
1878. Walsham, Surg. Pathol., xiii. 369. From the great frequency with which it occurs in chimney-sweepers, cancer of the scrotum is generally designated the *soot- or sweeps-cancer.
1891. Cent. Dict., *Soot-dew,… a black, fuliginous coating covering parts of living plants.
1810[?]. P. Pott, Obs. Chimney Sweeper’s Cancer, 4. It is a disease which always makes its first attack on … the inferior part of the scrotum … the trade calls it the *soot-wart.
1869. Tanner, Pract. Med. (ed. 6), I. 126. Since the Act of Parliament made the use of machinery imperative, the soot-wart has been less frequently seen.
Soot, variant of SWOTE ‘sweat’ Obs.
