sole

Meanings

Adjective

• Only.
• Unmarried (especially of a woman); widowed.
• Unique; unsurpassed.
• With independent power; unfettered.

Noun

• The bottom or plantar surface of the foot.
• The bottom of a shoe or boot.
• The foot itself.
• Solea solea, a flatfish of the family Soleidae.
• The bottom or lower part of anything, or that on which anything rests in standing.
• The seat or bottom of a mine; applied to horizontal veins or lodes.
• A wooden band or yoke put around the neck of an ox or cow in the stall.
• A pond or pool; a dirty pond of standing water.

Verb

• to put a sole on (a shoe or boot)
• To pull by the ears; to pull about; haul; lug.

Origin

• From Middle English sole, soule, from Old French sol, soul, from Latin sōlus. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swé. Perhaps related to Old Latin sollus, from , *salw-, *slōw-. More at save.
• From Middle English sole, soole, from Old English sole, solu. Reinforced by Anglo-Norman sole, Old French sole, from Vulgar Latin *sola, from Latin solea, from Proto-Indo-European *swol-. Cognate with Dutch zool, German Sohle, Danish sål, Icelandic sóli, Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌻𐌾𐌰. Related to Latin solum. More at soil.
• From Middle English sole, soole, from Old English sāl, from Proto-Germanic *sailą, *sailaz, *sailō, from Proto-Indo-European *sey-. Cognate with Scots sale, saile, Dutch zeel, German Seil, Icelandic seil. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian dell.
• From Middle English sol, from Old English sol, from Proto-Germanic *sulą, from Proto-Indo-European *sūl-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian soal, Dutch sol, German Suhle, Norwegian saula, søyla. More at soil.
• From earlier sowle. Origin unknown. Perhaps from sow + -le, as in the phrase "take a sow by the wrong ear", or from Middle English sole. See above.