so...とは 意味・読み方・使い方

アナグラム

• O's, Os, os-, O&S, o's, O. S., OS., -os-, O.S., OS, -os, o.s., os

語源 1

From 中期英語 so, swo, zuo, swa, swe, from 古期英語 swā, swǣ, swē (“so, as, the same, such, that”), from Proto-West Germanic *swā, from Proto-Germanic *swa, *swē (“so”), from Proto-Indo-European *swē, *swō (reflexive pronomial stem). Cognate with Scots sae (“so”), Saterland Frisian so (“so”), West Frisian sa (“so”), Dutch zo (“so”), German Low German so (“so”), German so (“so”), Danish så (“so”), Norwegian Nynorsk so (“so”), Swedish så (“so, such that”), Faroese so (“so”), Icelandic svo (“so”), Old Latin suad (“so”), Albanian sa (“how much, so, as”), Ancient Greek ὡς (hōs, “as”), Urdu سو (sō, “hence”).

発音

• (英国発音) enPR: sō, IPA: /səʊ/
• (米国発音) enPR: sō, IPA: /soʊ/
• (Canada) IPA: [soː]
• (Dublin, Local) IPA: /sʌo/
• (Northumbria) IPA: /siː/
  • (unstressed form) IPA: /sə/
• 韻: -əʊ
• 異形同音異義語: seau, sew, soe, soh, soy (some non-standard dialects); sow (sense 2)

接続詞

so

1. Reduced form of 'so that', used to express purpose; in order that.

   I got an earlier train to work so I'd have plenty of time to prepare for the meeting.

   Eat your broccoli so you can have dessert.

2. As a result; for that reason; therefore; because of this; due to this.

   I was hungry, so I asked if there was any more food.

   He ate too much cake and so he fell ill.

   He wanted a book, so he went to the library.

   “I need to go to the bathroom.” ― “So go!”

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ […].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.

3. Used to connect previous conversation or events to the following question.

   So how does this story end?

4. Used to introduce a rhetorical question.

   “We'd like to visit but I don't know if we can afford a hotel.” — “So who's staying in a hotel? Stay with us.”

5. (archaic) Provided that; on condition that; as long as.
   • c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     Speed. ‘Item: She doth talk in her sleep.’
     Launce. It’s no matter for that, so she sleep not in her talk.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 18, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     As we cal money not onely that which is true and good, but also the false; so it be currant.

   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 35:

     […] though all the windes of doctrin were let loose play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licencing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength.

   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar‎, London, page 111:

     I went away very well satisfy’d, not caring where I was sent, so it was but out of his Sight; for he now became more my Aversion than ever.

使用する際の注意点

Chiefly in North American use, a comma or pause is often used before the conjunction when used in the sense as a result. (A similar meaning can often be achieved by using a semicolon or colon (without the so), as for example: He drank the poison; he died.)

The apparently meaningless use of so to begin sentences, such as replies to questions, where there is no relevant sense of in order that or for that reason, has become increasingly common over the early part of the 21st century, and has widely been described as irritating. [5][6][7][8][9].

同意語

• (in order that): so that, that

副詞

so (not comparable)

1. To the (explicitly stated) extent.

   It was so hot outside that all the plants died.

   He was so good, they hired him on the spot.

   You behaviour so incensed me that I even thought of firing you.

   It was so cold a day that I could hardly breathe outside.

   So ridiculously did I do in the exam that mom grounded me for a month.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ […].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.

   • 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.

2. To the (implied) extent.

   I need a piece of cloth so long. [= this long]

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.

3. Very (positive or negative clause).

   I feel so much better now.

   I so nearly lost my temper.

   It’s not so bad. [i.e. it's acceptable]

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Captain Edward Carlisle […] felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, […]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.

4. Very much.

   But I so want to see the Queen when she visits our town!

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:

     Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust.

   • 1989, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #5, Archie Comics:

     I so wanted to be Jess Harley again.

   • 2003 April 16, Michael Stokes, “I, Dude”, in Totally Spies!, season 2, episode 9, spoken by Clover (Andrea Taylor), Marathon Media, via Teletoon:

     Yeah! Not eating is so 90’s!

   1. (informal) at all (negative clause).

      That is so not true!

5. In the same manner or to the same extent as aforementioned; likewise, also.

   Just as you have the right to your free speech, so I have the right to mine.  Many people say she's the world's greatest athlete, but I don't think so.  "I can count backwards from one hundred." "So can I."

   He wants to eat now. So does she.

   • 1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC:

     "Good morrow to thee, jolly fellow," quoth Robin, "thou seemest happy this merry morn." ¶ "Ay, that am I," quoth the jolly Butcher, "and why should I not be so? Am I not hale in wind and limb? Have I not the bonniest lass in all Nottinghamshire? And lastly, am I not to be married to her on Thursday next in sweet Locksley Town?"

   • 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 192:

     The work thus done has probably been of the greatest value to the human race; but, just as in other cases it has sometimes happened that the effort to do a certain work has resulted in the end in an unbalanced exaggeration so here.

   • 2012 May 19, Paul Fletcher, “Blackpool 1-2 West Ham”, in BBC Sport:

     It was a goal that meant West Ham won on their first appearance at Wembley in 31 years, in doing so becoming the first team since Leicester in 1996 to bounce straight back to the Premier League through the play-offs.

   • 2019, Amanda Koci, Henry Walter, Charlie Puth, Maria Smith, Victor Thellm, Gigi Grombacher, Roland Spreckle, “So Am I”, performed by Ava Max:

     it's okay to be different
     'Cause baby, so am I

6. Indeed.

   ‘Look, it’s just stopped raining.’ ‘So it has!’

   ‘There are two more.’ ‘So there are.’

7. (with as): To such an extent or degree; as.

   so far as;  so long as;  so much as

使用する際の注意点

• Use of so in the sense to the implied extent is discouraged in formal writing; spoken intonation which might render the usage clearer is not usually apparent to the reader, who might reasonably expect the extent to be made explicit. For example, the reader may expect He is so good to be followed by an explanation or consequence of how good he is. Devices such as use of underscoring and the exclamation mark may be used as a means of clarifying that the implicit usage is intended; capitalising SO is also used. The derivative subsenses very and very much are similarly more apparent with spoken exaggerated intonation.

• The difference between so and very in implied-extent usage is that very is more descriptive or matter-of-fact, while so indicates more emotional involvement. For example, she is very clever is a simple statement of opinion; she is so clever suggests admiration. Likewise, that is very typical is a simple statement; that is SO typical of him! is an indictment. A formal (and reserved) apology may be expressed I am very sorry, but after elbowing someone in the nose during a basketball game, a man might say, Dude, I am so sorry! in order to ensure that it's understood as an accident.

同意語

• (very): really, truly, that, very
• (to a particular extent): that, this, yea
• (in the same aformentioned manner): like this, thus
• (slang: very much): really, truly, very much

派生語

参照

形容詞

so (comparative more so, superlative most so)

1. Agreeing with actual facts or reality; true.

   That is so.

   You are responsible for this, is that not so?

   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

   • 2008, Leslie T. Chang, Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China‎, New York: Spiegel & Grau, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 73:

     The details of her own life crowded out everything else; almost every time I saw Min, she had something new to tell me. It sometimes felt as if the laws of the physical world did not apply to her, that she had only to think of something — a job switch, a breakup — to make it so. If I didn’t see her for a while, she might forget to tell me that she had quit a factory or gotten a raise, because in her mind she had already moved on.

2. In that state or manner; with that attribute. A proadjective that replaces the aforementioned adjective phrase.

   "You're definitely not right about that." "I am so!" (→I am right about that).

   • 1823, Andrew Reed, Martha:

     If this separation was painful to all parties, it was most so to Martha.

   • 1872, Charles Dickens, “The Personal History of David Copperfield”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     But if I had been more fit to be married, I might have made you more so too.

   • 1947, Liberty Hyde Bailey, The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture:

     It must be understood that while the nelumbiums are hardy, they are so only as long as the tubers are out of the reach of frost.

3. (dated, UK, slang) Homosexual.

   Is he so?

同意語

• (true): correct, right, true
• (euphemistic: homosexual): musical, one of the family, one of them, that way inclined

派生語

• make it so
• more so

間投詞

so

1. Used after a pause for thought to introduce a new topic, question or story, or a new thought or question in continuation of an existing topic.

   Synonyms: look, well, see, hey

   So, let's go home.

   So, what'll you have?

   So, there was this squirrel stuck in the chimney...

   So, everyone wants to know – did you win the contest or not?

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all.

2. Used as a question to ask for further explanation of something said, often rhetorically or in a dismissive or impolite manner.

   "You park your car in front of my house every morning." — "So?"

3. Used as a meaningless filler word to begin a response to a question.

   What are you doing? / So I'm just fixing this shelf.

   What time does the train leave? / So it leaves at 10 o'clock.

4. (archaic) Be as you are; stand still; used especially to cows; also used by sailors.

使用する際の注意点

Though certain uses of "sentence-initial so" had been common for a long time, the perceived excessive use of the word at the start of sentences, such as at the start of answers to questions, became controversial in the 2010s, being described as "annoying".

代名詞

so

1. (demonstrative) That which was previously mentioned; that.

   I'll become a loyal friend and remain so.

   If that's what you really mean, then just say so.