tartar
UK /ˈtɑː.tə/ · US /ˈtɑɹ.tɚ/ noun, adjective, proper noun
Forms tartars
- noun A red compound deposited during wine making, mostly potassium hydrogen tartrate; wine stone — a source of cream of tartar.
- noun A hard yellow deposit on the teeth, formed from dental plaque.
- noun (dated) A fearsome or angrily violent person.
- noun A member of the various tribes and their descendants of Tartary, such as Turks, Mongols and Manchus.
- noun (figurative, dated) A person of a keen, irritable temper.
- noun (figurative) A rough or violent event.
- adjective Of or relating to the people or culture of Tartars. “Tartar customs”
- proper noun One of the tributary rivers of the Kura, flowing through Artsakh and Azerbaijan.
- proper noun A town in Azerbaijan located on this river.
Synonyms
wine stone cream of tartar potassium bitartrate potassium hydrogen tartrate dragon Tatar Mongol Tatar calculus tophus
Etymology
From Old French tartre, from Medieval Latin tartarum, from Byzantine Greek τάρταρον (tártaron), said to be from Arabic دُرْدِيّ (durdiyy), though it is already found in Pelagonius’s Ars veterinaria 46 in the adjective tartarālis, if the reading is correct. Arabic etymon from Persian درد (dord, “dreg”) from Proto-Iranian *dr̥ti- (“manure, feces”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰṛ-to-, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreyd- (“to have diarrhea”), whence also doublet of dirt.
From figurative use of Tartar.
From Old French Tartaire, from Medieval Latin Tartarus (“Tartar, Mongol”), from Old Turkic 𐱃𐱃𐰺 (t¹t¹r¹), spelling influenced by Latin Tartarus (“Hell (in Greek mythology)”), from Ancient Greek Τάρταρος (Tártaros). Doublet of Tatar and tartare.
From Armenian Թարթառ (Tʻartʻaṙ).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A reddish crust or sediment in wine casks, consisting essentially of crude cream of tartar, and used in marking pure cream of tartar, tartaric acid, potassium carbonate, black flux, etc., and, in dyeing, as a mordant for woolen goods; --called also argol, wine stone, etc.
- noun A correction which often incrusts the teeth, consisting of salivary mucus, animal matter, and phosphate of lime. Cream of tartar. (Chem.) See under Cream.
- noun A native or inhabitant of Tartary in Asia; a member of any one of numerous tribes, chiefly Moslem, of Turkish origin, inhabiting the Russian Europe; --written also, more correctly but less usually, Tatar.
- noun A person of a keen, irritable temper. To catch a tartar, to lay hold of, or encounter, a person who proves too strong for the assailant. [Colloq.]
Etymology [Per. Tatar, of Tartar origin.]
Etymology [Cf. F. tartare.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “tartar”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details