sooty

English

Etymology

From Middle English sooty, soty, equivalent to soot +‎ -y. Probably influenced by similar Middle English suti (“dirty, filthy”), derived from the same root as Old English besūtian (“to befoul”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsʊti/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (dialectal) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌti/
• Rhymes: -ʊti

Adjective

sooty (comparative sootier, superlative sootiest)

1. Of, relating to, or producing soot.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     Fire of sooty coal.

   • 2023 December 13, Robin Leleux, “Restored... and a richly deserved award: Findlater's Corner”, in RAIL, number 998, page 43:

     The white faience façade, the glazed Doultonware Carrera marble, was made locally. And being glazed, it was impervious to London's sooty atmosphere, enabling easier cleaning.

2. Soiled with soot
3. Of the color of soot.
   • 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: , London: [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, , published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus:  (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:

     The grisly legions that troop under the sooty flag of Acheron.

4. (obsolete, literary) Dark-skinned; black.
   • 1834, William Gilmore Simms, Guy Rivers: A tale of Georgia:

     While thus reduced, his few surviving senses were at once called into acute activity by the appearance of a sooty little negro, who placed within his grasp a misshapen fold of dirty paper, […]

   • 1877, Henry Kendall, “Ode to a Black Gin”, in The Australian Town and Country Journal, page 24:

     And, though I've laughed at your expense, / O sister of the sooty hue, / No man who has a heart and sense / Would do one deed to injure you.

Synonyms

• (dark-skinned): black, dusky, inky, sable, swarthy

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

sooty (third-person singular simple present sooties, present participle sootying, simple past and past participle sootied)

1. To blacken or make dirty with soot.
   • 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. , London: Rich Field , for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, , volumes (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, , 1857, →OCLC:

     Sootied with noisome smoke.

Translations

Middle English

Alternative forms

• soti, soty, soyty, sotye

Etymology

From soot +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsoːtiː/

Adjective

sooty (rare)

1. Soiled with soot; sooty.

Descendants

• English: sooty
• Scots: suitie, sitty, sittie

References

• “sọ̄tī, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-06-14.