From Middle English sot, from Old English sot, sott (“foolish, stupid”), from Medieval Latin sottus (“foolish”), of obscure origin and relation. Possibly an expressive interjection, similar to French zut! (“damn it!”).
Compare Middle Low German sot (“insane, foolish, stupid”), Middle Dutch sot ("foolish, absurd, stupid"; > modern Dutch zot), French sot (“stupid, foolish, goofy”).
Meanings
(archaic) Stupid person; fool.
Remember
First to possess his books; for without them
He's but a sot, as I am […] 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
c. 1670-1680, John Oldham, The Eighth Satire of Monsieur Boileau, imitated
In Egypt oft has seen the Sot bow down,
And reverence some deified Baboon.
Drunkard.
Take a picture by Teniers, of sots quarrelling over their dice; it is an entirely clever picture; so clever that nothing in its kind has ever been done equal to it; but it is also an entirely base and evil picture. April 21, 1864, John Ruskin, "Traffic", Unto This Last and Other Writings, New York: Penguin (1997), p. 235
Every sign
That calls the staring sots to nasty wine. 1684, Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon, Essay on Translated Verse:
From Middle English sotten, from the adjective (see above).
Meanings
To drink until one becomes drunk
To stupefy; to infatuate; to besot.
I hate to see a brave, bold fellow sotted. 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page number):
(Singapore, colloquial, vulgar) Upset, unhappy or bitter about something.
Ngl still damn sot about PV barging into Pasir Ris-Punggol and forcing a vote-split. The disrespect towards SDA was NOT ACCEPTABLE 2020 July 11, @risaannwong, Twitter:
From Cantonese short (sot¹, “crazy”), itself a clipping of English short circuit.
Meanings
(Manglish, Singlish) Insane, crazy, screwed up.
all swe [software engineers] recently sot sot one. spent the last 3 years chasing too much headline salaries but now tech winter so all scared and frustrated . frustrations boiling over 2024 April 3, Unregistered, “Shopee fresh grad pay”, in Salary.sg Forums:
From Cantonese short (sot¹, “crazy”), itself a clipping of English short circuit.
Meanings
(Manglish, Singlish, intransitive, invariable) To short circuit, to go haywire or malfunction.
my stock horn sot sot liao 2009 May 29, anric79, “[Group] YAMAHA Fazer”, in singaporebikes.com:
(Manglish, Singlish, intransitive, invariable) To go crazy.
All these delusional ACN graduates. Must be OT so much until brain sot liao 2021 July 13, Unregistered, “Roles in accenture singapore”, in Salary.sg Forums: