so
Language: English
Part of speech: conj
Pronunciation: enpr: sō
ipa: /səʊ/
ipa: /siː/
ipa: /sə/
enpr: sō
ipa: /soʊ/
ipa: [soː]
note: Dublin, Local
ipa: /sʌo/
rhymes: -əʊ
homophone: seau
homophone: sew
homophone: soe
homophone: soh
homophone: soy stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
homophone: sow stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
Etymology: From Middle English so, swo, zuo, swa, swe, from Old English swā, swǣ, swē (“so, as, the same, such, that”), from Proto-West Germanic *swā, from Proto-Germanic *swa, *swē (“so”), from Proto-Indo-European *swē, *swō (reflexive pronomial stem). Cognate with Scots sae (“so”), Saterland Frisian so (“so”), West Frisian sa (“so”), Dutch zo (“so”), German Low German so (“so”), German so (“so”), Danish så (“so”), Norwegian Nynorsk so (“so”), Swedish så (“so, such that”), Faroese so (“so”), Icelandic svo (“so”), Old Latin suad (“so”), Albanian sa (“how much, so, as”), Ancient Greek ὡς (hōs, “as”), Urdu سو (sō, “hence”).
Senses: examples: text: I got an earlier train to work so I'd have plenty of time to prepare for the meeting.
text: Eat your broccoli so you can have dessert.
glosses: Reduced form of 'so that', used to express purpose; in order that.
examples: text: I was hungry, so I asked if there was any more food.
text: He ate too much cake and so he fell ill.
text: He wanted a book, so he went to the library.
text: “I need to go to the bathroom.” ― “So go!”
text: Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’[…].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
glosses: As a result; for that reason; therefore; because of this; due to this.
examples: text: So how does this story end?
glosses: Used to connect previous conversation or events to the following question.
examples: text: “We'd like to visit but I don't know if we can afford a hotel.” — “So who's staying in a hotel? Stay with us.”
glosses: Used to introduce a rhetorical question.
examples: text: Speed. ‘Item: She doth talk in her sleep.’
Launce. It’s no matter for that, so she sleep not in her talk.
ref: c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
text: As we cal money not onely that which is true and good, but also the false; so it be currant.
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 18, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
text: […] though all the windes of doctrin were let loose play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licencing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength.
ref: 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 35:
text: I went away very well satisfy’d, not caring where I was sent, so it was but out of his Sight; for he now became more my Aversion than ever.
ref: 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, page 111:
glosses: Provided that; on condition that; as long as.
Synonyms: sense: in order that
word: so that
sense: in order that
word: that