Sodde

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Archaic past tense of seethe, describing food or liquid that was boiled or cooked in hot water
2. An obsolete past form of seethe meaning that something had been brought to a boil and cooked
3. Old past tense of the verb seethe, used for something that was heated until it bubbled in liquid

Etymology: "Sodde" is a Middle English spelling of the past participle of "seethe," the verb for boiling or simmering. Its Old English ancestor, "sēothan," meant to boil, and the participle "soden" described something that had been cooked in liquid. Over time the sense of boiling faded while the idea of something saturated with liquid remained, so "sodden" now describes soaked ground or drenched clothes rather than anything on the stove. The Middle English form shows the participle in transition, with the final consonant doubled as the vowel shortened. The shift from cooking to soaking happened gradually, and the change in meaning is more striking than the change in spelling. Both forms are inherited from Old English, not borrowed, so the word has been part of English for well over a thousand years.