souiller

Inherited from Middle French souiller, from Old French soillier, souillier (“to soil, make dirty, wallow in mire”), from Frankish *sulwijan (“to make dirty, soil”), from Proto-Germanic *sulwijaną, *saulijaną (“to soil, make dirty”), from Proto-Indo-European *sūl- (“thick liquid, mud”). Cognate with Old Saxon sulian (“to soil, mire”), Middle Dutch soluwen, seulewen (“to soil, besmirch”), Old High German solagōn, bisullen (“to make dirty”), German suhlen (“to soil, make dirty”), Old English solian, sylian (“to soil, sully”), Danish søle (“to make dirty, defile”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐍃𐌰𐌿𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (bisauljan, “to bemire”). More at soil.

• IPA^(key): /su.je/

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souiller

1. (transitive) to soil, sully, dirty

   Synonym: salir

2. (transitive) to make unclean or impure; defile, profane
3. (figuratively, transitive) to blacken, besmirch, defile

• “souiller” in Émile Littré, Dictionnaire de la langue française, 1872–1877.
• “souiller”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• soulier

• rouilles, rouillés