sorb

The root sorb comes from Latin sorbēre, 'to sip, suck in, swallow down.' Picture a thirsty person sucking up a drink — that pulling-in, drinking-down motion is the whole idea. The plain 'drinking' sense never made it into English on its own; instead the root survives almost entirely behind one prefix: ab-.

- ab- (away, in / completely) + sorb → absorb: to suck something in completely. A sponge absorbs water; dark cloth absorbs heat. From this physical act came a chain of figurative uses, all sharing the picture of drawing something fully in:
- the mind 'sucking in' information: absorb a lesson, absorb the news.
- attention being pulled in entirely: a book that absorbs you, work that absorbs all your time.
- one thing swallowing up another: a big company absorbs a smaller one; costs are absorbed.

The rest of the family is built on absorb:

- absorption: the noun — the process of sucking in (the absorption of light) or a state of total mental engrossment (deep absorption in her work).
- absorbing: the adjective for what pulls your attention in — an absorbing film, an absorbing story.
- self-absorbed: literally 'sucked up in oneself' — so wrapped up in your own thoughts that you notice no one else.

The spelling shifts a little: the verb keeps the -b (absorb, absorbed), but the noun softens to -p (absorption), because Latin -bt- naturally became -pt-. Same root, gentle sound change.

So this is a small but high-traffic family. Almost everything traces to one image: a sponge soaking something up — water, light, information, attention, or, in self-absorbed, your own self.