suck [OE] The Old English verb sūcan is from an Indo-European root imitating the sound; Old English soak is related. The phrase suck up to was originally schoolboys’ slang of the mid 19th century. Late Middle English suckle was probably formed from the slightly earlier suckling from suck. The word suction made its appearance in the early 17th century from the related Latin sugere ‘suck’. A sucker [LME] was originally a young mammal before it was weaned, or a baby feeding at its mother’s breast. The notion of a naïve and innocent baby led, in the mid 19th century, to that of a gullible person or an easy victim. See also even.