sock

Where does the word "sock" come from? It comes from Latin soccus, and was adopted directly into English (1300s).

Sock’s story begins in Latin: soccus meant “light slipper.” The low slipper of comic actors, contrasted with the tragic actor's high boot (cothurnus) in Horace's Ars Poetica. It reached English by 1300s as sock. Borrowed into Old English as socc 'slipper', it came to mean a knitted foot-covering; William Lee's stocking frame of 1589 mechanised knitting, and 'sock and buskin' still means comedy and tragedy. Today, sock means a knitted garment worn on the foot.

1. Stage 1 · Latin · classical soccus "light slipper", the low slipper of comic actors, contrasted with the tragic actor's high boot (cothurnus) in Horace's Ars Poetica.
2. Stage 2 · English · 1300s sock "foot covering", borrowed into Old English as socc 'slipper', it came to mean a knitted foot-covering; William Lee's stocking frame of 1589 mechanised knitting, and 'sock and buskin' still means comedy and tragedy.