rennet
/ˈɹɛnɪt/ noun
Forms rennets runnet
- noun An enzyme used as the first step in making cheese, to curdle the milk and coagulate the casein in it, derived by soaking the fourth stomach of a milk-fed calf in brine.
Synonyms
renneting
Etymology
From Middle English rennet, from Old English *rynnet, *ġerynnet, from Proto-West Germanic *garunniþu (“coagulation, curdling, rennet”), cognate with Old Saxon girunnida (“a running together, coagulation”), Old High German girunnida (“rennet, coagulation”), Middle High German gerinnede (“that which is curdled”).
Compare also Middle English renelesse, renels, renlys, rendlys (“rennet”), Middle Dutch rinsel, runsel (“rennet”), German Rennsel; further to Middle English irennen (“to curdle; to run”), Old English ġerennan (“to coagulate”), Old High German girunst (“rennet”), German gerinnen (“to coagulate; congeal”).
Anglicized form of reinette.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A name of many different kinds of apples. Cf. Reinette.
- noun The inner, or mucous, membrance of the fourth stomach of the calf, or other young ruminant; also, an infusion or preparation of it, used for coagulating milk. [Written also runnet.] Cheese rennet.
Etymology [F. rainette, reinette, perhaps fr. raine a tree frog, L. rana, because it is spotted like this kind of frog. Cf. Ranunculus.]
Etymology [AS. rinnan, rennan, to run, cf. gerinnan to curdle, coagulate. . See Run, v.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “rennet”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details