English
souter
Souter comes from Latin sūtor ‘shoemaker, cobbler’, from suō ‘to sew, stitch, join, fasten together’, and ultimately from Proto-Italic *sūō.
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sūō1‘to sew, stitch’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsuō2‘to sew, stitch, join, fasten together’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsūtor3‘shoemaker, cobbler’
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sūtere3‘shoemaker’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500soutere3‘a shoemaker’
- Englishearliest quotation 1527souter3
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin suo
- 2 Wiktionary, Latin sutor
- 3 Wiktionary, English souter
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1527, William Tyndale: “There is no work better than another to please…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sūōWiktionary, Latin suo‘to sew, stitch’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsuōWiktionary, Latin sutor‘to sew, stitch, join, fasten together’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsūtorWiktionary, English souter‘shoemaker, cobbler’
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sūtereWiktionary, English souter‘shoemaker’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500soutereWiktionary, English souter‘a shoemaker’
- Englishearliest quotation 1527souterWiktionary, English souter. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1527, William Tyndale: “There is no work better than another to please…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *syewH- ‘to sew’
sew, seam, sutra, hymen, sutta, 7 more
through Latin suō ‘to sew, stitch, join, fasten together’
Today it means
noun A shoemaker or cobbler.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “souter”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin suo, Latin sutor. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Italic *sūō / souter