sauce

English

Alternative forms

• sawce (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɔːs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɔs/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /sɑs/

• Audio (US cot-caught merged)

  (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /soːs/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Homophone: source (in non-rhotic accents with the horse-hoarse merger)
• Rhymes: -ɔːs

Etymology 1

From Middle English sauce, from Old French sause, from Vulgar Latin *salsa, noun use of the feminine of Latin salsus (“salted”), past participle of saliō (“I salt”), from sal. Doublet of salsa.

Noun

sauce (countable and uncountable, plural sauces)

1. A liquid (often thickened) condiment or accompaniment to food.
   • 2015 October 27, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better‎, Plum, →ISBN, page 192:

     You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf.

   apple sauce; mint sauce

2. (UK, Australia, New Zealand, India) Tomato sauce (similar to US tomato ketchup), as in:

   pie and sauce

3. (slang, usually “the”) Alcohol, booze.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:alcoholic beverage

   Maybe you should lay off the sauce.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     […] she was thinking of her first husband, who was a heel to end all heels and a constant pain in the neck to her till one night he most fortunately walked into the River Thames while under the influence of the sauce and didn't come up for days.

   • 1993, Tristan Hawkins, Pepper, London: Flamingo, →ISBN, page 110:

     I've been pretty much off the sauce during the last week, trying to get Pepper to like me again. (Horace won't drink with me any more.)

4. (slang, usually “the”) Vitality; capability or talent.

   Synonym: juice

   It's over for that guy. He lost the sauce.

5. (bodybuilding) Anabolic steroids.
6. (art) A soft crayon for use in stump drawing or in shading with the stump.
7. (dated) Cheek; impertinence; backtalk; sass.
   • 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, volume 2, London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., published 1968, →ISBN, page 691:

     "See here, Captain!" He planted himself squarely in front of Faramir, his hands on his hips, and a look on his face as if he was addressing a young hobbit who had offered him what he called "sauce" when questioned about visiting the orchard.

   • 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 39:

     ‘Well, you know what Matchett’s like! Just about bring herself to talk to me because I’m housemaid, but if the gardener’s boy so much as looks at ’er it’s sauce,’ said Sarah.

8. (US, obsolete slang, 1800s) Vegetables.
   • 1833, John Neal, The Down-Easters: &c. &c. &c., volume 1, Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 91:

     I wanted cabbage or potaters, or most any sort o' garden sarse [...]

   • 1882, George W. Peck, “Unscrewing the Top of a Fruit Jar”, in Peck's Sunshine‎:

     [...] and all would be well only for a remark of a little boy who, when asked if he will have some more of the sauce, says he "don't want no strawberries pickled in kerosene."

9. (obsolete, UK, US, dialect) Any garden vegetables eaten with meat.
   • 1705, Robert Beverley, The History of Virginia:

     Roots, herbs, vine fruits, and salad flowers […] they dish up various ways, and find them very delicious sauce to their meats, both roasted and boiled, fresh and salt.

   • 1830, Joseph Plumb Martin, “Ch. VIII”, in A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier:

     The first night of our expedition, we boiled our meat; and I asked the landlady for a little sauce, she told me to go to the garden and take as much cabbage as I pleased, and that, boiled with the meat, was all we could eat.

Synonyms

• sowl

Derived terms

Related terms

• (alcohol):
  • hit the sauce
  • lost in the sauce
  • on the sauce
  • sauced
  • sauce parlor, sauce parlour

Descendants

• → Japanese: ソース
• → Scottish Gaelic: sabhs

Translations

Verb

sauce (third-person singular simple present sauces, present participle saucing, simple past and past participle sauced)

1. To add sauce to; to season.
2. To cause to relish anything, as if with a sauce; to tickle or gratify, as the palate; to please; to stimulate.
   • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Earth, yield me roots; / Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate / With thy most operant poison!

   • 1645, Jos[eph] Hall, “Sect XII. Consideration of the Benefits of Poverty.”, in The Remedy of Discontentment: Or, A Treatise of Contentation in whatsoever Condition: , London: J. G. for Nath Brooks, , published 1652, →OCLC, page 61:

     Meales, uſually ſavvced vvith a healthfull hunger, vvherein no incocted Crudities oppreſſe Nature, and cheriſh diſeaſe: […]

3. To make poignant; to give zest, flavour or interest to; to set off; to vary and render attractive.
   • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the page number)”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, →OCLC:

     Then fell she to sauce her desires with threatenings.

4. (colloquial) To treat with bitter, pert, or tart language; to be impudent or saucy to.
   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     I'll sauce her with bitter words.

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     "A bit of real starvin' would do them no 'arm, and I would 'ave less sauce." "What, has Willie sauced you?" "Yes, when 'e woke up." […] "Wot did he say?" "Cursed me good and proper, 'e did."

5. (slang) To send or hand over.

Derived terms

• sauce up

Translations

See also

Category:en:Sauces

Etymology 2

Noun

sauce (plural sauces)

1. (Internet slang) Alternative form of source, often used when requesting the source of an image or other posted material.

References

Anagrams

• 'cause, Eacus, cause

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French sause, from Vulgar Latin *salsa, nominal use of the feminine of Latin salsus (“salted”), perfect participle of saliō (“to salt”), from sāl.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sos/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

sauce f (plural sauces)

1. sauce

Derived terms

Descendants

Further reading

• “sauce”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Anagrams

• cause, causé, sceau

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French sause, from Vulgar Latin *salsa, from Latin salsus (“salted”).

Alternative forms

• sause, sawce, sawse, salse, saus, saws

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsau̯s(ə)/

Noun

sauce (plural sauces)

1. A sauce or gravy; a liquid condiment.
   • c. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “General Prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales, lines 353–354:

     Wo was his cook, but if his ſauce were / Poynaunt and ſhaꝛp, and redy al his geere.

     Woe to his cook, except if his sauce was / sour and sharp, and all his equipment was ready

2. A solution or broth used for pickling or preserving.
3. A liquid medicine; sauce as a pharmaceutical.

Related terms

• sauce flewme
• saucen
• saucer
• saucerie
• vert sauce

Descendants

• English: sauce
• Scots: sauce

References

• “sauce, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-12-08.

Etymology 2

Verb

sauce

1. Alternative form of saucen

Old French

Etymology 1

Noun

sauce oblique singular, m or f (oblique plural sauces, nominative singular sauces, nominative plural sauce)

1. Alternative form of sauz

Etymology 2

Noun

sauce oblique singular, f (oblique plural sauces, nominative singular sauce, nominative plural sauces)

1. Alternative form of sause

Spanish

Spanish Wikipedia has an article on:

sauce

Wikipedia ^es

Etymology

Inherited from Old Spanish salze, inherited from Latin salicem (“willow”), from Proto-Indo-European *sl̥H-ik- (“willow”). Doublet of sarga. Compare Catalan salze, Italian salice, Romanian salcie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /ˈsauθe/
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /ˈsause/
• (Spain) Rhymes: -auθe
• (Latin America) Rhymes: -ause
• Syllabification: sau‧ce

Noun

sauce m (plural sauces)

1. willow

   Synonym: salce

Usage notes

• Sauce is a false friend, and does not mean the same as the English word sauce. The Spanish word for sauce is salsa.

Derived terms

Related terms

Further reading

• “sauce”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Anagrams

• cause, causé, sueca