Soup is the general term for various kinds of salty liquid food, which often also contains solid components, such as vegetables and/or meat, with savoury varieties.
It it often one of the first courses of a dinner; if it is very rich in components and calories it may serve as a whole meal. At home it is usually a supper, tea or lunch meal.
The origin of soup is connected to the development of pottery vessels capable of holding and cooking liquids over a fire without breaking, a technology available in Mediterranean cultures since Neolithic times (approximately 5000 B.C.)
Learning to boil food was advantageous because it meant that certain grains, tougher vegetables and animal bones could be cooked together to add their taste and nutrients to a dish. Once you had a mixture of foods with water, it seems an inevitable development that people would drink the broth as well as eating the cooked items in it.
Soup is usually made from stock - water in which meat bones (and/ or vegetables) have been boiled.
Stock can be strained and reduced (boiled to reduce the water content) to yield a clear soup called consommé .
Cold soups, such as gazpacho, can be salty when made from vegetables, or sweet, when made from fruits.