curd

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English crud, also crudde and curd;^[2][3] the present form, with the r moved after the vowel by metathesis, dates from the 15th century,^[4][5][6] and the older form survives in regional English and in crud.^[3][4] Its further origin is uncertain.^[3][7][8] Most dictionaries relate it to Old English crūdan (“to press, drive”), the source of crowd,^{[6][5][9][10][11][12][13]} and the Middle English Dictionary explains the Middle English forms as remodelled from that verb's past participle.^[2] The verb is from Proto-Germanic *krūdaną, which Etymonline and Köbler trace to Proto-Indo-European *greut- (“to press”).^[14][6] The revised OED suggests either an unrecorded Old English noun from a zero-grade form of the base of that verb, though the expected vowel would then be o rather than u, or a borrowing from early Scandinavian, comparing regional Norwegian krodde (“dregs, curds”) and Scots kroddins (“curds”), a rare word of Shetland.^[3] Etymonline, Hoad, Skeat and Ayto mention Scottish Gaelic gruth (“curds”) and Irish gruth as possibly related,^{[6][15][11][4]} a link the OED calls disputed.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The soft white substance formed when milk coagulates, used for cheese or eaten as food: 1378, in a farming record quoted in J. L. Fisher's Medieval Farming Glossary.^[3] Barnhart finds crud before 1376, in Piers Plowman,^[5] and Etymonline says it originally meant any coagulated substance.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Promptorium Parvulorum of 1440 already glosses curde as Latin coagulum.^[2] Besides milk curd, the word was used from about 1425 of any thickened substance that looks like it, especially soap scum,^[3] and since about 1440 of the curdled milk in the stomach of an unweaned calf, used in cheesemaking.^[3] Curds and whey is recorded from about 1550.^[3] Later uses are the edible head of cauliflower or broccoli (1759), the creamy fat between the flakes of salmon (1828), a fruit conserve of butter, eggs and sugar, as in lemon curd (1858), and, in Indian English, a set yogurt (1888).^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the coagulation of milk; the concretion of the thicker parts of any liquor".^[16] The verb curd, recorded before 1382, was largely replaced by curdle, which appears as crudle in Spenser (1590);^[3][5][17] the OED marks its use for curdling blood obsolete after 1658.^[3] The old form crud remained in wide regional use, from Scotland and the north of England to the south-west, and in some North American speech,^[3] and in the United States it took on the sense "filth, rubbish" in the 1940s.^[17]

Timeline

• 1378 – coagulated milk, made into cheese or eaten.^[3]
• before 1382 – verb, to form into a solid mass; figuratively, to turn sour or harden.^[3]
• c. 1425 – any coagulated substance like milk curd, especially soap scum.^[3]
• c. 1440 – curdled milk in the stomach of a young calf; verb, to make milk into curds.^[3]
• before 1500 – the present spelling, by metathesis.^[5]
• c. 1550 – curds and whey.^[3]
• 1759 – the edible head of cauliflower or broccoli.^[3]
• 1828 – the creamy fat between the flakes of salmon.^[3]
• 1858 – a fruit conserve made with butter, eggs and sugar.^[3]
• 1888 – in Indian English, a set yogurt.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The thick part of milk that coagulates when it sours or is treated with rennet or other enzymes, used to make cheese or eaten as food; often plural: curds and whey.^{[10][8][9][3]}
2. A food or other substance resembling milk curd: bean curd.^[10][9][8]
3. A whitish precipitate, especially the scum formed by soap in hard water.^[10][3]
4. The edible head of cauliflower or broccoli.^[3]
5. A smooth fruit spread made with butter, eggs and sugar: lemon curd.^[3]
6. (Indian English) Set yogurt made from cow's or buffalo milk.^[3]

Verb

1. To make into curd or become curd; to curdle.^{[10][9][8][18]}

Word family

• curdy
• crud
• curdle
• bean curd
• curd cheese
• lemon curd

Related words

• crowd

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
15. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
18. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press