sauce

English Online Dictionary. What means sauce‎? What does sauce mean?

English

Alternative forms

• sawce (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɔːs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɔs/
• (Philippines) IPA^(key): /sos/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /sɑs/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /soːs/
• Homophone: source (non-rhotic, horse–hoarse merger)
• Rhymes: -ɔːs

Etymology 1

From Middle English sauce, from Old French sause, from Vulgar Latin *salsa, noun use of the feminine of Latin salsus (“salted”), past participle of saliō (“I salt”), from sal. Doublet of salsa.

For the meaning development compare Ancient Greek ἥδυσμα (hḗdusma) ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swéh₂dus (whence also English sweet).

Noun

sauce (countable and uncountable, plural sauces)

2. A liquid (often thickened) condiment or accompaniment to food.

   apple sauce; mint sauce

3. (UK, Australia, New Zealand, India) Tomato sauce (similar to US tomato ketchup), as in:

   [meat] pie and [tomato] sauce

4. (slang, usually “the”) Alcohol, booze.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:alcoholic beverage
5. (slang, usually “the”) Vitality; capability or talent.

   Synonym: juice

6. (bodybuilding) Anabolic steroids.
7. (art) A soft crayon for use in stump drawing or in shading with the stump.
8. (dated) Cheek; impertinence; backtalk; sass.
9. (US, obsolete slang, 1800s) Vegetables.
10. (obsolete, UK, US, dialect) Any garden vegetables eaten with meat.

Synonyms

• sowl

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

• (alcohol):
  • hit the sauce
  • lost in the sauce
  • on the sauce
  • sauced
  • sauce parlor, sauce parlour

Descendants

• → Japanese: ソース
• → Scottish Gaelic: sabhs

Translations

Verb

sauce (third-person singular simple present sauces, present participle saucing, simple past and past participle sauced)

1. To add sauce to; to season.
2. To cause to relish anything, as if with a sauce; to tickle or gratify, as the palate; to please; to stimulate.
3. To make poignant; to give zest, flavour or interest to; to set off; to vary and render attractive.
4. (colloquial) To treat with bitter, pert, or tart language; to be impudent or saucy to.
5. (slang) To send or hand over.

Derived terms

• sauce up

Translations

See also

Category:en:Sauces

Etymology 2

Noun

sauce (plural sauces)

1. (Internet slang) Alternative form of source, often used when requesting the source of an image or other posted material.

References

Anagrams

• 'cause, Eacus, cause

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French sause, from Vulgar Latin *salsa, nominal use of the feminine of Latin salsus (“salted”), perfect participle of saliō (“to salt”), from sāl.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sos/

Noun

sauce f (plural sauces)

1. sauce

Derived terms

Descendants

Further reading

• “sauce”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• cause, causé, sceau

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French sause, from Vulgar Latin *salsa, from Latin salsus (“salted”).

Alternative forms

• sause, sawce, sawse, salse, saus, saws

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsau̯s(ə)/

Noun

sauce (plural sauces)

1. A sauce or gravy; a liquid condiment.
2. A solution or broth used for pickling or preserving.
3. A liquid medicine; sauce as a pharmaceutical.

Related terms

• sauce flewme
• saucen
• saucer
• saucerie
• vert sauce

Descendants

• English: sauce
• Scots: sauce

References

• “sauce, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-12-08.

Etymology 2

Verb

sauce

1. Alternative form of saucen

Old French

Etymology 1

Noun

sauce oblique singular, m or f (oblique plural sauces, nominative singular sauces, nominative plural sauce)

1. Alternative form of sauz

Etymology 2

Noun

sauce oblique singular, f (oblique plural sauces, nominative singular sauce, nominative plural sauces)

1. Alternative form of sause

Spanish

Alternative forms

• salce (archaic)

Etymology

Inherited from Old Spanish salze, inherited from Latin salicem (“willow”), from Proto-Indo-European *sl̥H-ik- (“willow”). Doublet of sarga. Compare Catalan salze, Italian salice, Romanian salcie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /ˈsauθe/ [ˈsau̯.θe]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /ˈsause/ [ˈsau̯.se]
• Rhymes: -auθe
• Rhymes: -ause
• Syllabification: sau‧ce

Noun

sauce m (plural sauces)

1. willow

Usage notes

• Sauce is a false friend, and does not mean the same as the English word sauce. The Spanish word for sauce is salsa.

Derived terms

Related terms

Further reading

• “sauce”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

Anagrams

• cause, causé, sueca