wort
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /wɜːt/
ipa: /wɝt/
homophone: wert
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t
ipa: /wɔːt/
ipa: /woɹt/
homophone: wart
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)t
homophone: wert (one pronunciation)
homophone: wart (one pronunciation)
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)t
ipa: /wɜːt/
ipa: /wɝt/
homophone: wert
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t
ipa: /wɔːt/
ipa: /woɹt/
homophone: wart
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)t
Forms: form: worts
Etymology: 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.
Cognates
* 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)
Senses: examples: text: Nay then tvvo treyes, an if you grovv ſo nice, / Methegline, VVort, and Malmſey; […]
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], page 138, column 2:
text: VVhen they make drink vvith them, they take 10 or 12 ripe Plantains and maſh them vvell in a Trough: then they put tvvo gallons of VVater among them; and this in tvvo hours time vvill ferment and froth like VVort: In four hours it is fit to drink; and then they bottle it and drink it as they have occaſion: […]
ref: 1697, William Dampier, chapter XI, in A New Voyage Round the World. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, page 314:
text: Making the wort with nothing but barley malt and hot water is the standard method in Germany, and in many U.S. microbreweries.
ref: 2004, Harold McGee, “Wine, Beer, and Distilled Spirits”, in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, revised edition, New York, N.Y.; London: Scribner, →ISBN, page 747:
text: They discovered what are called "wild" or "spontaneously fermented" beers, in which fermentation is induced not by pitching commercially produced yeast into an enclosed tank, but by letting the wild yeasts floating in the air interact with the wort to turn it into alcohol.
ref: 2017, Jon C. Stott, “The Birds and the Yeasts in Tillamook”, in Beer 101 North: Craft Breweries and Brewpubs of the Washington and Oregon Coasts, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 110:
topics: beverages
brewing
business
food
lifestyle
manufacturing
qualifier: distilling
glosses: 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.
Derived terms: mashwort