sap

• IPA^(key): /sæp/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æp

From Middle English sap, from Old English sæp (“juice, sap”), from Proto-West Germanic *sap (“sap, juice”) (compare Dutch sap, German Saft, Icelandic safi), from Proto-Indo-European *sab-, *sap- (“to taste”) (compare Welsh syb-wydd (“fir”), Latin sapa (“must, new wine”), Russian со́пли (sópli, “snivel”), Old Armenian համ (ham, “taste”), Avestan 𐬬𐬌-𐬱𐬁𐬞𐬀 (vi-šāpa, “having poisonous juices”), Sanskrit सबर् (sabar, “juice, nectar”)). More at sage.

The longstanding practice of sapping trees influenced the sense evolution of the military term as trench warfare receded from public conscience.

sap (countable and uncountable, plural saps)

1. (uncountable) The juice of plants of any kind, especially the ascending and descending juices or circulating fluid essential to nutrition.
2. (uncountable) The sapwood, or alburnum, of a tree.
3. Any juice.
4. (figurative) Vitality.
5. (slang, countable) A naive person; a simpleton.

   Synonyms: milksop, saphead

   Look at the sap mowing our lawn while we pretend our own lawnmower is broken.

   • 1997, “Don't Look Down”, in Curtains, performed by Tindersticks:

     She said I'm such a sap, I'm such a jerk / Can't I ever forget the way that we are / Spend all your time with your eyes on the ground / Looking for the stars

sap (third-person singular simple present saps, present participle sapping, simple past and past participle sapped)

1. (transitive) To drain, suck or absorb from (tree, etc.).
2. (transitive, figurative) To exhaust the vitality of.
   • 2022 April 12, Neil Johnston, “Real Madrid 2-3 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport‎:

     While Tuchel will be delighted with the way his players responded, there will be concern at how much the energy-sapping 120 minutes has taken out of them.

Probably from sapling.

sap (plural saps)

1. (countable, US, slang) A short wooden club; a leather-covered hand weapon; a blackjack.
   • 1944, William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman, The Big Sleep (screenplay)

     I risk my whole future, the hatred of the cops and Eddie Mars' gang. I dodge bullets and eat saps.

sap (third-person singular simple present saps, present participle sapping, simple past and past participle sapped)

1. (transitive, slang) To strike with a sap (with a blackjack).
   • 1944, William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman, The Big Sleep (screenplay)

     [A]s he passes the mouth of a narrow alley two men step out quickly. One of them saps Marlowe expertly — they drag him out of sight.

   • 1964, Raymond Chandler, Killer in the Rain:

     And when he had me up there he would sap me again and I wouldn't remember anything that happened in between the two sappings.

From French saper (compare Spanish zapar and Italian zappare) from sape (“sort of scythe”), from Late Latin sappa (“sort of mattock”).

sap (plural saps)

1. (military) A narrow ditch or trench made from the foremost parallel toward the glacis or covert way of a besieged place by digging under cover of gabions, etc.

sap (third-person singular simple present saps, present participle sapping, simple past and past participle sapped)

1. (transitive) To subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine; to undermine; to destroy the foundation of.
   • 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Nor safe their dwellings were, for sapped by floods, / Their houses fell upon their household gods.

2. (transitive, military) To pierce with saps.
3. (transitive) To make unstable or infirm; to unsettle; to weaken.
   • 1850, Alfred Tennyson, Ring, Out, Wild Bells:

     Ring out the grief that saps the mind […]

4. (transitive) To gradually weaken.

   to sap one’s conscience

   he saps my energy

5. (intransitive) To proceed by mining, or by secretly undermining; to execute saps.

• APS, APs, ASP, PAS, PAs, PSA, Pas, Psa., SPA, Spa, asp, pas, spa

• sapu, tsap, tsapu

From Vulgar Latin *sappō, from Latin sappa. Compare Romanian săpa, sap, French saper, Italian zappare, Sicilian zappari, Spanish zapar, Friulian sapâ, Venetian sapar, Latin sappa.

sap first-singular present indicative (past participle sãpatã)

1. to dig (with a pick)

• tãrchescu
• arãm

From Proto-Turkic *sạp-.

sap (definite accusative sapı, plural saplar)

1. thread

   Synonym: ip

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

sap (definite accusative sapı, plural saplar)

1. grip, hilt

• “sap” in Obastan.com.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencian) [ˈsap]
• Rhymes: -ap

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• sab (obsolete)

Back-formation from cepell.

sap m (plural saps)

1. common heather

   Synonyms: bruguerola, bronsa

sap

1. third-person singular present indicative of saber

• “sap” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

From Middle Dutch sap, from Old Dutch *sap, from Proto-West Germanic *sap.[1]

• IPA^(key): /sɑp/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sap
• Rhymes: -ɑp

sap n (plural sappen, diminutive sapje n)

1. juice

   Hyponyms: aalbessensap, appelsap, citroensap, druivensap, sinaasappelsap, vruchtensap

2. sap (fluid in plants)

• Afrikaans: sap
• Negerhollands: sap
• → Indonesian: getah (semantic loan)

• pas

From Sanskrit सर्प (sarpa).

sap ?

1. snake

• Eric Anonby, Hassan Mohebi Bahmani (2014) “Shipwrecked and Landlocked: Kholosi, an Indo-Aryan Language in South-west Iran”, in Cahier de Studia Iranica xx‎, pages 13-36

• saape, saappe, sape, sapp, sappe, zep
• sæp, sæpp (Early Middle English)

From Old English sæp, from Proto-West Germanic *sap, from Proto-Indo-European *sep-.

• IPA^(key): /sap/, /saːp/

sap (uncountable)

1. sap (plant juices)
2. sapwood (wood under bark)
3. (rare) earwax

• English: sap
• Scots: sap, saup

• “sā̆p(e, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

• IPA^(key): /sap/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ap
• Syllabification: sap

sap

1. second-person singular imperative of sapać

From Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀲𑀧𑁆𑀧 (sappa), from Sanskrit सर्प (sarpá, “snake”), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sarpás. Cognate with Punjabi ਸੱਪ (sappa, “snake”).

sap m (plural sapa)

1. snake

   Kana sas anθ-o veś, jekh sap dandardǎs man.

   While I was in the woods, a snake bit me.

• Turner, Ralph Lilley (1969–1985) “sap”, in A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages, London: Oxford University Press, page 766
• Yaron Matras (2002) “Historical and linguistic origins”, in Romani: A Linguistic Introduction‎, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 40
• Yūsuke Sumi (2018) “sap, ~a”, in ニューエクスプレスプラス　ロマ（ジプシー）語 [New Express Plus Romani (Gypsy)] (in Japanese), Tokyo: Hakusuisha, published 2021, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 154

• IPA^(key): [sap]

sap

1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of săpa

Borrowed from Malay cap.

sap

1. seal; stamp

From Ottoman Turkish صاپ (sap, “handle; stalk; hair”), from Proto-Turkic *sạp (“handle”). Cognate with Old Turkic [script needed] (sap).

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɑp/

sap

1. (slang) not having a significant other

sap (definite accusative sapı, plural saplar)

1. handle
2. stem, stalk
3. (slang) penis
4. (slang) male

From Proto-Finnic *sappi.

sap

1. bile, gall

Borrowed from Latin sapiō (“I am wise”).

• IPA^(key): /sɑːp/

sap

1. wisdom

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /θaːp˧˥/
• Tone numbers: sap⁷
• Hyphenation: sap

From Proto-Tai *saːpᴰ (“cockroach”). Cognate with Thai สาบ (sàap), Lao ສາບ (sāp), Shan သၢပ်ႇ (sàap), Bouyei saabt.

sap (Sawndip form 𫊷, 1957–1982 spelling sap)

1. cockroach

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

sap (1957–1982 spelling sap)

1. to wear shoes with the heels stepping down on the back of the shoes