Suds

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David Myer
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Suds

Postby David Myer » Sun Sep 05, 2021 10:02 pm

Walking the dog on the sea shore this morning, I got to thinking about suds. The waves lapping on the sand left some collections of suds. Is there a singular sud? It seems to me that since suds are a collection of bubbles, usually soapy bubbles, you can't have a sud. It would be a single bubble. But I wonder on the etymology here? Seethe is a rather doubtful internet suggestion.

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Slava
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Re: Suds

Postby Slava » Mon Sep 06, 2021 7:02 am

Hmm, I'd reserve suds for beer and the bath tub, dish sink, or other points of soap use. Other bubble ilks are foam.

Suds for beer would also be slang for the whole concept, not the foam at the top after pouring.

Here's etymonline on topic:
1540s, "dregs, leavings, muck," especially in East Anglia, "ooze left by flood" (according to OED this may be the original sense), perhaps borrowed from Middle Dutch sudse "marsh, bog," or related words in Frisian and Low German, cognate with Old English soden "boiled," from Proto-Germanic *suth-, from PIE *seut- "to seethe, boil" (see seethe). Meaning "soapy water" dates from 1580s; slang meaning "beer" first attested 1904.
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