haggis
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Late Middle English hagis (“haggis”), from hag, haggen (“to chop, cut, hack; to cut into”) (from Old Norse hǫggva (“to hew”)), or from hakken (“to chop, hack; to dice, mince”) (from Old English hēawan (“to chop, hew; to dice, mince”)), both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kewh₂- (“to hew; to beat, strike; to forge”).
Inflected forms:
form: haggises
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: haggess
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: haggies
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: haggiss
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: A traditional Scottish dish made from minced sheep offal with oatmeal and spices, etc., originally boiled in the stomach of a sheep but now often in an artificial casing, and usually served with neeps and tatties (mashed swede and potatoes) and accompanied with whisky.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: HAGGESS, haggas, or haggis, ſort d'appret fait avec des herbes, du larde caupé menu, des épices, des œufs, & du fromage, le tout mis enſemble & bouilli dans une panſe de brebis.
I congratulate the Caledonians on the acquiſition of this new Saint, but wonder if the German crows were ſo civil to refrain from ſo ſavoury a Scotch haggiſs.
"[…] You are all for providing other things before we have fixed upon the victuals. Let us ſettle about them firſt." / This word raiſed a tumult, ten times greater than the former; every one in the room roaring out at once for ſome particular diſh, either that it was his trade to provide, or which he was fond of himſelf. / […]—"An haggis,"—ſaid a Scot. / —"Leek-pottage,"—ſputtered Taffy. In a word, they all raiſed their voices with ſuch vehemence, not one attending to what another ſaid, that ſince the building of Babel, there was not ſuch a ſcene of confuſion.
And thank kind heav'n, their country can afford / A tumid haggeſs to adorn their board.
The Haggies is that very diſh (if I may ſo call it) and a very good diſh it is. […] [W]henever inſtead of the paunch, refinement ſhall invent a veſſel, in which to ſerve up the Haggies, it will certainly reſemble in its model the original prototype, whether it be formed into a turrene or a ſilver vaſe, having the ſinged head as ornamented handles to the ſides.
[T]he thousands of Englishmen who annually visit our romantic country can attest, that, even in the wildest Highland glens, something better can be found for their roast-beef stomachs, than sheep's-heads, haggises, and oat-meal cakes.
Another one of those revered patriarchs whom it were almost sacrilege to touch is [Robert] Burn's, with "honest sonsie face," the haggis. […] It is a pity that one of the last minstrels, if only one of humble rank, did not fix unchangeably in verse the component parts of the national haggis, as some one has done the "Eve's pudding," and Sydney Smith did for his salad, and another did for mulled wine. We have a compound called haggis, without the preceding article, composed of meat, chopped anchovies, eggs, bread, sour wine, pepper and salt. But that does not seem to correspond with the remarks of an editor of Burns, who says the haggis was to Scotland what the plum pudding is to England, and it was the pride of her people that all the ingredients and even the bag it was boiled in were of native production.
Haggis has a faggot-like consistency that certainly isn't short of flavour. I like to make individual portion haggises (traditional haggises are cooked in the sheep's paunch or stomach). It can also be made into a steamed haggis pudding simply by making the recipe, placing the mix in two 1.75 litre (3 pint) pudding basins, covering with buttered foil and then steaming for 3½ hours.
[T]he final dish of the day arrived in the form of a giant blood pudding, which was about the size of a basketball and wrapped in the goat's stomach. It reminded me more of Scottish haggis than of anything else I had seen on my travels around the globe. I took a tentative bite. It was fantastic, but I was completely done by this point and made my apologies to the disappointed restaurant owner. He seemed happy enough, particularly when he smiled and said, "Don't worry, anything that's left, I'll be taking home for dinner."
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