Soote

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. An archaic adjective meaning pleasing to the taste or senses, as used in older English writing
2. An obsolete spelling of a word describing something agreeable, sugary, or delightful to experience
3. Old English form meaning sweet, pleasant, or gratifying, found in medieval and early modern texts

Etymology: "Soote" is a Middle English form of "sweet," used in the sense of pleasant to the taste, which is what the meaning given here describes. It survives in the Middle English texts and in some regional and dialect spellings, and it is best understood as an older spelling of the common adjective rather than a separate word. The root goes back to Old English "swēte," which in turn comes from Proto-Germanic "*swōtijaz," meaning "sweet" or "pleasant." That Germanic root is related to the Latin "suavis," meaning "agreeable" or "pleasant," so English "sweet" and the Latin word for "sweet and agreeable" share an ancient ancestor. The word's original and central sense was taste, and its extension to pleasant qualities in general came later.