I'm glad you raised this, birdy, because researching the word
suped made me aware of a concept I'd not heard of, the
egg corn.
An egg corn is a mistaken version of a word or phrase, resulting from a plausible, but incorrect, theory about the expression. Hence, apparently, some people were observed to write "egg corn" for
acorn, perhaps believing the name was derived from the shape of the object.
The name
egg corn for this kind of error was coined in 2003
on the Language Log website. Other examples are "review mirror" for
rear-view mirror and "mindgrain" for
migraine. There is a website that catalogues egg corns,
The Eggcorn Database, where 597 examples are currently listed.
If enough people use an egg corn, it can evolve into "folk etymology" and perhaps become standard usage. An example of this is the
Jerusalem artichoke, the "Jerusalem" part of which is believed to have come from a mishearing of
girasole, the Italian word for sunflower (the plant is a variety of sunflower).
So, now, back to
suped. The Eggcorn Database
lists "supe" for soup, as in the expression "suped-up", under the classification "nearly mainstream". All dictionaries spell the word "soup", with supporting examples going back to the 1930s. So it seems that those writing "supe up" have heard the word and mistakenly assumed it derives from
super or
supercharge.
However, some of the comments on the Egg Corn Database entry question whether "soup up" might actually be the egg corn. The derivation the Oxford offers for "soup up" does seem far-fetched (an obscure word for liquid injected into a horse) and some dictionaries acknowledge that the derivation may have been "influenced" by
super-. It seems conceivable that the word was coined by mechanics and motoring enthusiasts as a shortening of
supercharge, but the first person to write it down may have assumed it was the existing word
soup.
In any case, there is no doubt that "soup" is currently the standard spelling, but "supe", though apparently recognised by no dictionaries, is quite commonly used, mainly on the Web, but sometimes in periodicals and books.
So, should we accept
supe and its inflections as legitimate variants, or ought they to be dismissed as mistakes (that are regrettably common)? This is a tricky question, touching on fundamental issues of linguistic philosophy.
Fortunately, we can evade these issues because
suped has another string to its bow. A few dictionaries list
supe for a supernumerary, or a superintendent, and in fact
supe is allowed in Chihuahua and could be played in the puzzle, as you noted, birdy. I would say this is due to these meanings rather than the "supe up" meaning. However, the Shorter Oxford also lists
supe as a verb meaning to act as a supernumerary (or extra) in a theatre. I was able to find a few examples of
suped being used in this sense. For example: "I 'suped' all that season, and the next season I got a small speaking part..." (
Players of the Present by John Bouvé Clapp & Edwin Francis Edgett, in Google Books.)
So
suped is acceptable, if only in the sense of "acted as an extra". I'll add it, and
suping, the next time the word list is updated.
