sap

Definition

The juice of plants of any kind, especially the ascending and descending juices or circulating fluid essential to nutrition.

Etymology

From Middle English sap, from Old English sæp (“juice, sap”), from Proto-West Germanic *sap (“sap, juice”) (compare Dutch sap, German Saft, Icelandic safi), from Proto-Indo-European *sab-, *sap- (“to taste”) (compare Welsh syb-wydd (“fir”), Latin sapa (“must, new wine”), Russian со́пли (sópli, “snivel”), Old Armenian համ (ham, “taste”), Avestan 𐬬𐬌-𐬱𐬁𐬞𐬀 (vi-šāpa, “having poisonous juices”), Sanskrit सबर् (sabar, “juice, nectar”)). More at sage. sap (“naive person”) is a clipping of sapskull (literally “person with sap in their skull”).

Example Sentences

• "In the preceding centuries the Ashkenazic Synagogue song had been Germanized to a degree that jeopardized not only its distinctive Jewishness but its very existence. In Eastern Europe, on the other hand, the ever-renewed Oriental sap penetrated also into the song."
• "Look at the sap mowing our lawn while we pretend our own lawnmower is broken."
• ""Or trying to reproduce it." "The Mafia wouldn't do that." "Don't be a sap," Hiro says. "Of course they would." Y.T. seems miffed at Hiro."