wort
UK /wɜːt/ · US /wɝt/ noun
Forms worts
- noun (archaic or historical) Now chiefly as the second element in the names of plants: a plant used for food or medicine.
- noun (specifically, historical) Chiefly in the plural: a plant of the genus Brassica used as a vegetable; a brassica; especially, a cabbage (Brassica oleracea).
- noun (by extension, botany) A non-vascular plant growing on land from the division Anthocerotophyta (the hornworts) or Marchantiophyta (liverworts); an anthocerotophyte or marchantiophyte.
- noun (brewing, distilling) Also worts: a liquid extracted from mash (ground malt or some other grain soaked in hot water), which is then fermented to make beer, or fermented and distilled to make a malt liquor such as whisky.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English wort, wurt, wyrte (“any herb or plant; herb or plant used as food or medicine; (specifically) cabbage or vegetable of the genus Brassica; (chiefly plural) dish of cooked vegetables”) [and other forms], from Old English wyrt (“a plant; vegetable; herb, spice”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *wurti (“a root; a spice”), from Proto-Germanic *wrōts (“a root”), from Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂ds (“a root”). Doublet of root and related to orchard.
* Old Dutch wort (“herb; plant”) (Middle Dutch wort (“herb; root”))
* Old High German wurz (“herb; root; spice”) (Middle High German wurz, modern German Wurz)
* Old Norse jurt, urt (“herb”) (Icelandic jurt, Norwegian urt, Old Danish urt (modern Danish urt), Old Swedish yrt (“plant”) (modern Swedish ört))
* Old Saxon wurt (“herb; plant; root”) (Middle Low German wort, wurt)
From Middle English wort, worte (“infusion of grain (probably malted barley) for brewing ale or beer; unfermented or incompletely fermented beer; infusion of honey and water for making mead; unfermented decoction or infusion of other substances used for food or medicine”) [and other forms], from Old English wurt, wyrt, wyrte (“wort in brewing”), from a merger of Proto-West Germanic *wurtiju (“wort in brewing; seasoning, spice”) and *wurti (“root; spice”), both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *wrōts (“a root”): see further at etymology 1.
* Dutch wort (“wort in brewing”)
* Middle Low German wert, werte (“infusion of malt in brewing; unfermented beer”)
* Old High German wirz (“infusion of malt in brewing; unfermented beer”) (Middle High German wirz, modern German Wirz (“juice; sweet liquid; unfermented beer”) (obsolete); see also German Würze (“aroma; seasoning, spice; spiciness”))
* Old Norse virtr (Danish urt (“wort in brewing”), Icelandic virt, virtur, Norwegian vørter, Swedish vört)
Webster’s 1913
- noun A plant of any kind.
- noun pl.
- noun An infusion of malt which is unfermented, or is in the act of fermentation; the sweet infusion of malt, which ferments and forms beer; hence, any similar liquid in a state of incipient fermentation.
Etymology [OE. wort, wurt, AS. wyrt herb, root; akin to OS. wurt, G. wurz, Icel. jurt, urt, Dan. urt, Sw. ört, Goth. waúrts a root, L. radix, Gr. root, n. Cf. Licorice, Orchard, Radish, Root, n., Whortleberry, Wort an infusion of malt.]
Etymology [OE. worte, wurte, AS. wyrte; akin to OD. wort, G. würze, bierwürze, Icel. virtr, Sw. vört. See Wort an herb.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “wort”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details