Sock

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /sɒk/

Definitions

1. A garment worn on the foot and lower leg to provide warmth or comfort ; to strike someone with a strong blow using the hand or a fist ; to provide someone with money or goods often as support or payment
2. An item of clothing covering the foot and ankle ; to deliver a hard punch to a person ; to give or furnish money or items to another person
3. A soft covering for the foot often worn inside shoes ; to hit someone vigorously, usually as a quick attack ; to supply or equip someone with resources or funds

Etymology: The garment and the punch share a word, but they come from different places. The foot covering traces back to Latin "soccus," a light slipper or buskin, which was itself borrowed from Greek "súkkhos," the name of a kind of shoe. That Greek term is thought to have come from Phrygian or another Anatolian language, so the word arrived in Europe from the eastern Mediterranean long before anyone knew what a sock was for. Old English took it as "socc," a light shoe or slipper, and it later narrowed to the stocking-like covering we wear today. The verb meaning to hit is a different story. It is onomatopoeic, imitating the sound of a blow, and it has parallels in Portuguese "soco," a punch. Its origin is a sound rather than a shoe, so the two senses are only homonyms that happen to look identical in English.

Synonyms: stocking, hosiery, footwear