History "Suped up" or "Souped up", which is it?

We often babble on about terminology. I read a long time ago that the term came from parts sold as "Super" hence, suped up. Most think hot soup. This is useless info, I know, but interesting no less. Like drag racing, now most think its because the fast car "drags" the slower car. BZZZT! Wrong. Feel free to add other WTFs you find appropriate. Like, why do so many say a rear spare on an early 30s car is a Continental Kit? That's a 50s accessory. Who's next...

 

Soup, because you always add a little "pepper".

 

Are you sure it’s not “sooping”?

 

Slow day at the office?

 

For me it's usually scooped up.

 

I liked “hopped up” but chicken soup sure helped when I was sick.

 

Well as far as I'm concerned, the question has been answered. It's SOUP.

 

Hello,

We are in an era of awful language as our society has "progressed?" Local language slang is picked up by some and it spreads like wildfire. But, it is not accepted as English in common essays and term papers, unless it is stated that slang is accepted.

But, a long time ago, the word if is it an acceptable word, “suped” is slang as it was not around in any language. As time goes by, even writers in automobile magazines tend to use slang as it seems like they are “cool” and in the “times.” It would be a difficult time getting a lot of slang into a college essay on Economics or just English 1A cl*** for Freshmen.

Jnaki

So, there are plenty of articles about the origin of “souped” relating to horses versus horsepower in hot rods. If it was a solution injected into horses to make them faster, then of course, the transferrence to horsepower in motors is a simple way to ***ociate the term in hot rods. (soup solution for horses)

Obviously, adding anything to performance gains is not right in horse racing, but once a term is used, it is hard to forget it. Like a jury trial that hears something and the judge says… “Please disregard what you just heard…” Yea, right, let me rewind those 5 minutes on the brain… ha!

People who talk in slang seem to think that is correct, but to some it is, due to that slang being all they hear. So, again, it is hard to define for some people slang versus local sayings. But, as our high school and all education provides, proper English is for our basic needs.

So, listen to the facts, “y’all…” (heard that on a TV show...) HA, obviously, YRMV

 

I never mentally correct anyone's spelling of either option. My mind hasn't locked down on one or the other. I know what they are saying and that's all that matters to me.
There are lots of other 'misspells' and 'mispronounced' words that are like fingernails on a chalkboard to me but not this one for some reason.

 

Ha! Maybe, but Jocko has an inquiring mind . . .
Looks like Mark answered the question, at least the 1961 version.

 

Ignoring the spelling, be it suop or supe, did it start by horse injections as stated above or super parts? Frankly I don't remember where I read it but the super parts idea made sense.

 

My Grandfather would refer to it as "Zooped up".

 

Odd all the years since I first heard the term. Never thought of the spelling.
Thanks, now I have another thing to ponder on…

 

Is the gl*** half full, or half empty?...or just twice as big as it needs to be?

 

It's "souped-up" not to be confused with, "Sup, Man?"

 

Suped instead of souped?
Don't scare me like that.

 

For many on here and at local cruise ins I would spell it pseu'ped up. As in pseudo, like fake blowers, carbs with block off plates, gear drives, mother thumper cams, fake disc brakes (seriously?), fake magnetos, Olds valve covers on anything that isn't an Olds, fake injection air cleaners, you get the idea.

 

Could it also have been related to from soup to nuts as in it's had alot done to it to make it faster?

 

Lots of 'in the know' guys here, right?
All the talk about Ed Winfield and nobody thought he coined the term? It was 'Suped'. ("Supered up")
Suped up was and is correct. (Kong Jackson and I kicked that around at the Forever 4 drags in '77.)
Horses, my mule.

 

The term.."Drag" race/strip actually derived from Sir Winston Churchill !
He was noted for a many things but this fact is prolly less well known than some of the others.
One thing he was noted for is hold up his two fingers in the shape of a V.
Another thing he is noted for is his cigar. (Often held in the V of his two fingers.)
It was said that on occasion he would let close friends and other world leaders puff on the lighted cigar.
As he grew older and a little more forgetful he had been know to lift his empty hand...with his fingers in the now famous V shape and say..........

....."Wanna drag ? !"
Thus the term became most popular after WWII !
(And NOW you know!!!)
6sally6

 

Makes sense to me. Soup, a Germanic word meant broth. Later in different languages it could mean stew, bread dipped in broth and later morphed into supper.
Super a Latin word, meant above, beyond and added to. Think Super Stock.

 

Must of had some good stuff in that cigar.
Drag comes from the early 16th or 17th century in England. A cart or sled used to bring timber to the mill or town. A simple path or drag became the main drag (street or road) used by travelers. I’m not sure if the term Drag Race started there or in the US.
I know you were joking but I didn’t want to start another soup-super type discussion.

 

Actually, (according to Hot Rod Magazine, 1954) The NHRA Drag Safari was said to have told folks in towns they stopped at that the term made every hot rodding young man welcome as a contestant.
When a would-be 'racer' challenged another, saying he had a car that could beat it, the colloquialism was, "Well, Drag it out!"

Drag, depicting a linear motion, fit in with an explanatory term, to be sure.
The race was NOT round & round, nor did it have deviation from straight line.
This all started at 5959 Hollywood Blvd., an the offices of Robt. Peterson. (HRM)
Later the expression sometimes pointed to the speed contest itself, as the subjects were "Draggin' it out."
This was told to me when I was 13, by Chic Cannon, (speed shop owner and member of the 'Drag Safari'.)
Look it up. HRM official Safari car was a '53 Plymouth station wagon, hand painted NHRA down both sides...
Chic had his shop in Santa Clara, (my home town) on Bellomy and Santa Clara Sts., 2 yrs later moved 3 miles away to a larger shop @ Cambrian Corners. He ran a '29 Hiboy roadster with Olds power. (drags only)

 

Apparently...

People used to sometimes refer to a particular chemical or medicinal mixture as a "soup".
Nitroglycerin was called a "soup" because it was a mixture derived from dynamite.
A mixture injected into a horse to make it run faster was often called a "soup". And the horse was said to be "souped up".

 

I believe ya! You have to admit that the term “main drag” has been around a long time though.

 

A rose by any other name...

 

I remember it being doped or doped up…..and we all know where that term went.

 

We all know where “balls out”and “high balling” comes from right! I believe it was discussed here in an old thread.