Soss

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. To drop or flop down heavily into a seat or onto the ground ; a careless, messy person who lacks neatness or care in appearance
2. To plump down clumsily or collapse with a heavy thud ; an untidy and slovenly individual who is careless about dress and cleanliness
3. Sitting or falling down with a heavy, ungainly motion ; a person considered lazy, sloppy and disorderly in habits and dress

Etymology: The noun "soss" meant a sloppy mess of food, and it was first used for the kind of slop given to hounds. In Middle English, "sosse" and "sos" named this watery mixture, and the word's origin is uncertain. Some have linked it to "sesspool" (cesspool), and it is also related to "souse," a word for pickling or soaking, which hints at the wet, muddled quality the word carries. The meaning then shifted from food to the person who makes a mess of things. Someone "soss" in the modern sense is slovenly and careless, a human version of the leftover slop. The word also has a second, separate route: it is a phonetic spelling of a clipping of "sausage," so the sausage link explains a spoken form rather than the older sense of slop.

Synonyms: mess, slovenliness

Antonyms: tidiness