sot

American  

[sot] / sɒt /

noun

Disparaging and Offensive.

• sots
  plural

1. a habitual drinker of alcohol who is frequently intoxicated.

   Synonyms:

   lush, drunkard

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sot ¹ British  

/ sɒt /

noun

1. a habitual or chronic drunkard

2. a person stupefied by or as if by drink

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sot ² British  

/ sɒt /

adverb

1. indeed: used to contradict a negative statement

   I am not! — You are sot!

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sottish
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• sots
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sot

First recorded before 1000; Middle English: “fool,” Old English sott, from Medieval Latin sottus; further origin unknown

Explanation

A sot is someone who frequently drinks too much alcohol. If you see someone stumbling out of a bar in the middle of the day, you might be tempted to describe him as a sot. Sot is a somewhat old-fashioned word for a heavy drinker, also known as a lush or a wino. It's also considered insulting and derogatory. The character of the sot has featured in literature and film for years, going at least as far back as Shakespeare, whose famous sots included the drunken Falstaff in "Henry IV" and Sir Toby Belch in "Twelfth Night." In Old English, a sott was a "stupid person or a fool."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sot sots

Fosse, after all, was creating in his own image, whether rendering himself as a satyr, a sot or a snake.

From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2023

He fired a sot from the right circle that eluded Greiss’ stick with 5:44 remaining.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 1, 2021

Others have pointed out that Molière used the expression “un sot savant” in Les Femmes Savantes as far back as the late 17th century.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 26, 2017

While the designated sot stumbles through said tale, an assortment of familiar actors in period garb re-enact the story as described more or less exactly, flubs and all.

From Salon ● Nov. 29, 2016

‘Of course. All except Grandsire. He wouldn’t hide with the women and farm animals and he couldn’t go fight. He was sot on sitting it out under his own roof.’

From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes

But Droegemeier can connect the sots for Trump to science, too, too.

From Scientific American ● Aug. 23, 2018

Despite the many newspaper tales of sots and suicides arising last week from the Bonus payment of $1,900,000,000 in black & green $50 bonds, the average Veteran played a watchful, waiting game.

From Time Magazine Archive

He always called his underlings "big shots," which, in Greco-Skouras, came out "big sots."

From Time Magazine Archive

Not to divide the world into the elect who . . . have the answers . . . and the sots who are foolish enough not to be so sure.

From Time Magazine Archive

So he gits out dar some sun-up or sundown, when de sun jest sots a'mos' on de groun, an' ebery tree an' fence-pos' and standin' thing goes away over de land, frowin' long crooked shadows.

From The Entailed Hat Or, Patty Cannon's Times by Townsend, George Alfred