soot

Meaning

Noun

Fine black or dull brown particles of amorphous carbon and tar, produced by the incomplete combustion of coal, oil etc.

Verb

To cover or dress with soot.

Synonyms

lampblack

smut

smoke

crock

carbon

ash

ashes

charcoal

dust

grime

dirt

carbon black

cinders

blight

lye

blackness

smudge

coals

colly

smutch

charcoal dust

coom

coal-dust

smoke-black

stripe blight

black carbon

sooty black

coal smoke

black

smoke from burning coal

ink

lamp

Pronounced as (IPA)

/sʊt/

Etymology

From Middle English soot, soote, sote, sot, from Old English sōt, from Proto-Germanic *sōtą (“soot”), from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”). Cognate with dated Dutch zoet (“soot”), German Low German Soot (“soot”), Danish sod (“soot”), Swedish sot (“soot”), Icelandic sót (“soot”). Compare similar ō-grade formation the same Proto-Indo-European root in Old Irish suide (“soot”) and Balto-Slavic: Lithuanian súodžiai (“soot”), and Proto-Slavic *saďa (“soot”) (Russian са́жа (sáža), Polish and Slovak sadza, Bulgarian са́жда (sážda)).