að; this heathen word remains in only four passages of the old poems Hm. and Ýt., and in those only in the infin. and part. sóit; from these, however, a strong inflexion may be inferred; in mod. usage (in sense II) it is a verb of the 1st weak conjugation (að): [the etymology is doubtful; not from sá = to sow; it is more likely that sóa is the root word to són, an atonement. The passages in Hm. and Ýt. leave no doubt as to the original sense]:—to sacrifice, make an offering, but in a specific sense, for Hm. makes a distinction between blóta and sóa; veiztú hve blóta skal … veiztú hvé sóa skal, … betra er ósent en sé of sóit, Hm. 145, 146; þá er árgjörn Jóta dólgi Svía kind um sóa skyldi, Ýt. 5 (where the prose is, at þeir skyldi honum ‘blóta’ til árs sér); at Bölverki þeir spurðu ef hann væri með böndum kominn eðr hefði honum Suttungr um sóit, or if S. had sacrificed him, put him to death, Hm. 109.

II. in mod. usage the word is freq. in the sense to squander, with dat. and declined; sóa fé sinu, og þá hann hafði nú öllu sóað, það hann átti, Luke xv. 14; cp. Lat. dapes, an offering, and Gr. δαπάνη, a squandering.