sosh

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /səʊʃ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /soʊʃ/
• Rhymes: -əʊʃ
• Homophone: soc

Etymology 1

Noun

sosh (plural soshes)

1. (slang) Abbreviation of various terms beginning "social"; used especially in compound terms.
   • 1928, Will Irwin, Herbert Hoover A Reminiscent Biography, The Century Company, page 50:

     In Hoover's second year there rose a prophet of the "barbs" or non-fraternity men whose appropriate name was Zion. His constant tilting against things as they are gave him the nickname of "Sosh" short for Socialist.

   • 1981, Cameron Crowe, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Simon and Schuster, page 43:

     This, more than anything else, was the true sign of a high school social climber known as the “sosh.” The teeth-baring sosh (long o) began as a glimmer in the eye.

   • 2009, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Political Ducks: Lucky, Lame, and Dead, Xlibris, page 241:

     Both had taught at different times in the Military Academy's Social Sciences Department […] “Sosh,” as the academic department was called […]

   • 2009, Sean Scalmer, “‘for the sake of a straight out fight’: The Free Traders and the Puzzle of the Fusion”, in Paul Strangio, Nicholas Dyrenfurth, editors, Confusion: The Making of the Australian Two-Party System, Melbourne University Press, page 87:

     In the face of Reid's prominent ‘anti-Sosh’ campaign (in reality an attempt to wedge Deakin's supporters), Labor held its ground in the 1906 election […]

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:sosh.
   1. (slang) A social security number.
      • 2003, Michael Allen Dymmoch, The Feline Friendship, Macmillan, page 33:

        He handed her a paper with Erik Last's DOB and Visa card number. "This guy wouldn't give me his sosh." His social security number.

   2. (slang) Social studies.
      • 1986, Marilyn Gould, The Twelfth of June, Lippincott, page 10:

        “I mean he's crazy about me . Whoa - h - h !” She lowed like a cow in heat . “ “How do you know ?” “Well , in sosh class — you know , social studies —” Mr . Kurland goes , “Today we're having a surprise QQ .”

      • 1995, Bernice Friesen, The Seasons are Horses, Thistledown Press, page 37:

        She'd let him think it was over for a while, but I knew she'd be on him again at noon, or spreading the word in the back of Social Studies; Mrs. Lehmann, the Sosh teacher, couldn't see the back of the room very well.

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Short for association store.

Noun

sosh (plural soshes)

1. (Scotland, slang) A co-op.
   • 1888, J. M. Barrie, Auld Licht Idylls, Hodder and Stoughton, page 77:

     Weddings were celebrated among the Auld Lichts by showers of ha'pence, .... Willie Todd, the best man, ... slipped through the back window ... and making a bolt for it to the "'Sosh," was back in a moment with a handful of small change.
     Barrie's usage is annotated in Hammerton, cited below.

   • 1896, Alick Blair, Rantin Robin & Marget: With Other Scottish Sketches & Homely Rhymes, Arbroath: T. Buncle & Company, page 82:

     An' as I thocht that a wee hair o' pepper would help to gie the gruel a gude flavour, I opened ane o' the wee bits o' pockies that had been brocht by Marget on the Saturday frae the Sosh an' put in a grain o' its contents.

   • 1897, Fergus Mackenzie, Sprays of Northern Pine, Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, page 110:

     Maggie, rin you to the sosh for a peck o' saut.

   • 1900, Sir John Alexander Hammerton, J. M. Barrie and his books: biographical and critical studies, Horace Marshall and Sons, page 248:

     In many Scottish villages, the Co-operative Store is known as the “Sosh[.]”

References

• Joseph Wright, editor (1904), The English Dialect Dictionary, volume R-S, page 625

  (Entry on sosh, including verbal and adverbial meanings.)

Anagrams

• Hoss, Sohs, hoss, shos, sohs