Origin uncertain; the fact that the earlier senses seem to be the horse racing cant and United States Navy slang ones suggests a derivation from soup, connoting a horse or a person being filled with a liquid.
Alternatively, it has been suggested that the term is a modified , with reference to an aeroplane or automobile engine being supercharged: see, for example, the 1925 quotation. This sense appears to post-date the horse-racing and navy slang senses.
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