Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an extremely small amount of money.

1676		implied in not a sou
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Souse. Not a Souse, not a Penny (French Money).
1707		N. Ward ‘The Humours of a Coffee-House’ Writings (1704) 284: The Hogan Troops Dishonour’d thus [...] In sorry Rags, without a Sous.
1727		J. Gay Beggar’s Opera II iv: Like Gypsies, if once they can finger a Souse, / Your Pockets they pick, and they pilfer your House.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: souse Not a Souse; not a Penny. From Sous, French Money.
a.1749		Robertson of Struan ‘On a Lady of Pleasure’ Poems (1752) 204: And, which is best, to finish all, / There’s not one Sous to pay.
c.1775		H. Carey Honest Yorkshire-Man 10: Their Pocket Holes adorn’d with Gold, / But not one Souse within.
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 268: From me a sous they cannot get.
1828		‘A Flat Enlightened’ Life in the West I 129: ‘[P]enyless [sic], having spent our last “sous” in wine, or grog, as our pockets could afford’.
1838		Comic Almanack Feb. 126: What’s a plunge more or less to a man as hasn’t got a sous?
1845		P.T. Barnum letter in Saxon Sel. Letters (1983) 26 Aug. 34: I (don’t) pay a d----d sou for the theatre!
1879		London Life 5 July 7/2: [He] refused to allow my Lord Tom Noddy, who hadn't a sou about him, to pay for the entertainment.
1887		H.A. D’Arcy ‘The Face on the Bar-room Floor’ n.p.: You laugh as if you thought this pocket never held a sou.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 64: When he was staked to the office he did n’t have a sou markee except what was tied up in a bum little grocery store.
1897		J. London ‘The Road’ in Hendricks & Shepherd Jack London Reports (1970) 311–21: Their argot is peculiar study. [...] Sou-markee is a distorted combination from two root languages. It is a hyperbolical synonym for the smallest absolute coin and is used thus: – I haven’t a sou-markee.
1906		Marvel 17 Nov. 467: Worth fifty quid, if it’s worth a sou!
1918		‘Sapper’ Human Touch 66: Their sou, their little offering at the shrine opposite.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 386: The clumsy things are dear at a sou.
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 56: We spent our last sou on a deck of butts.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) ) 283: Suppose I don’t get a sou out of it.
1944		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 340: Pederasty / Is decidedly nasty, / But you may slip up my slew for a sou.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 23: I ain’t got a ‘sou’ to cop with.
2024		personal letter 2 Mar. Bear in mind darling that — only has a few sous to rub together [...] and isn’t as financially comfortable as you.

2. (US, also soo) a cent.

1907		Sun (NY) 24 Feb. 8/3: A pocketful of panatelas at twenty sous the each.
1940		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 27 Apr. 7/7: Met a soo to the wax box and let the rhythm soothe his conk.

3. (US black) a nickel.

1943

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 18 Sept. 22: Tie up a sou in the big end.