4 ms·

> Obama was clearly sopping to them What does this mean? Feels like a typo but I can't figure out what the intended sentence was.

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago
I don't read a typo. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sop https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sop (second noun definition)
- stavros 3y ago
  But it was used as a verb.
  - lazide 3y ago
    The beauty of English (one of the sluttiest languages in the world) is you can verb anything. And there is no académie to come arrest me for it! Muahaha
    - frabbit 3y ago
      "Sopping to" still does not have any common accepted meaning though. So, if you want to communicate with other users of English it might be a good idea not to use that phrase. You want both your listeners and you to agree on what it means and as far as I can tell only you know that.
    - vunderba 3y ago
      Sigh, the word sop already has a verb form - you're making progressively less sense with each subsequent reply. If you want to "smith" a new expression, it might behoove you to spend more time at the anvil.
lazide 3y ago
Apologies for the less common words. Other examples: Buttering them up. Giving away the farm. Rolling out the red carpet. Essentially giving them whatever they wanted without asking any hard questions.
- frabbit 3y ago
  I don't think you are correct. Google ngram viewer supports the idea that any occurrence of the phrase 'sopping to' is so rare as to be probably an error. You can usually "sop up" == "soak up" something which leads to the common "sopping wet". You can also have a "sop" == "morsel". "Sopping to" makes no sense in English. Sources: google ngram, wiktionary, merriam-webster, concise oxford 1971
  - lazide 3y ago
    And yet, you’re the only one complaining. Have fun!
    - frabbit 3y ago
      Actually I was not complaining. I was trying to help: both you and anyone else reading that might believe your assertion that "sopping to" has the meaning you believe.
    - vunderba 3y ago
      This is an oddly defensive response considering the time they took to etymologically dig into an expression that I and likely 99% of native English speakers have never encountered, despite your claims of it being a perfectly cromulent word.
  - lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago
    > "Sopping to" makes no sense in English. English definitions are descriptive instead of prescriptive. In this context, an English dictionary will describe how words are used in practice rather than prescribing how they should be used in theory. It stands to reason that English dictionaries are likely to have holes in their definitions, especially in cases where words are used in novel ways. It helps to keep in mind that a person’s written or spoken English is correct if other English speakers -- some, not all -- correctly interpret the words as having the communicator’s intended meaning. This particular case is just someone verbing with a noun, which is a common practice in informal English.

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago

I don't read a typo. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sop https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sop (second noun definition)

stavros 3y ago
But it was used as a verb.
- lazide 3y ago
  The beauty of English (one of the sluttiest languages in the world) is you can verb anything. And there is no académie to come arrest me for it! Muahaha
  - frabbit 3y ago
    "Sopping to" still does not have any common accepted meaning though. So, if you want to communicate with other users of English it might be a good idea not to use that phrase. You want both your listeners and you to agree on what it means and as far as I can tell only you know that.
  - vunderba 3y ago
    Sigh, the word sop already has a verb form - you're making progressively less sense with each subsequent reply. If you want to "smith" a new expression, it might behoove you to spend more time at the anvil.

lazide 3y ago

Apologies for the less common words. Other examples: Buttering them up. Giving away the farm. Rolling out the red carpet. Essentially giving them whatever they wanted without asking any hard questions.

frabbit 3y ago
I don't think you are correct. Google ngram viewer supports the idea that any occurrence of the phrase 'sopping to' is so rare as to be probably an error. You can usually "sop up" == "soak up" something which leads to the common "sopping wet". You can also have a "sop" == "morsel". "Sopping to" makes no sense in English. Sources: google ngram, wiktionary, merriam-webster, concise oxford 1971
- lazide 3y ago
  And yet, you’re the only one complaining. Have fun!
  - frabbit 3y ago
    Actually I was not complaining. I was trying to help: both you and anyone else reading that might believe your assertion that "sopping to" has the meaning you believe.
  - vunderba 3y ago
    This is an oddly defensive response considering the time they took to etymologically dig into an expression that I and likely 99% of native English speakers have never encountered, despite your claims of it being a perfectly cromulent word.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago
  > "Sopping to" makes no sense in English. English definitions are descriptive instead of prescriptive. In this context, an English dictionary will describe how words are used in practice rather than prescribing how they should be used in theory. It stands to reason that English dictionaries are likely to have holes in their definitions, especially in cases where words are used in novel ways. It helps to keep in mind that a person’s written or spoken English is correct if other English speakers -- some, not all -- correctly interpret the words as having the communicator’s intended meaning. This particular case is just someone verbing with a noun, which is a common practice in informal English.