porridge

Etymology

It is from English an alteration of pottage,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} through 16th-century forms such as podech and podditch,^[5] in which the t was pronounced as d and then changed to r, as in porringer from earlier pottinger.^[7] The OED compares poddish.^[2][8] The change may owe something to the obsolete porray, porreie (“leek broth”),^{[3][4][9][6][8]} from Old French poree (“leek soup”),^{[3][4][9][10]} from Vulgar Latin *porrāta,^[3][10][6] from Latin porrum (“leek”).^{[3][4][9][10]} Klein calls the word a blend of pottage and porray,^[10] and Etymonline allows that it may instead be porray itself, changed under the influence of pottage.^[3] Pottage goes back to Middle English potage, from Old French potage (“food cooked in a pot”), from pot (“pot”),^[3][7][11] which Merriam-Webster takes to be of Germanic origin.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A thick soup of vegetables, herbs or meat, often thickened with barley: about 1533, as porage, in Giles Du Wes's Introductorie for to lerne Frenche.^[2][9][6] The spelling porridge appears in 1601, in Ben Jonson's Poetaster,^[9] about 1600 in Etymonline.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Ayto describes how the stew of vegetables and meat gave way to a cereal gruel, and how the oatmeal kind finally took over the word.^[7] The oatmeal dish is first quoted before 1643, in William Cartwright's poems;^[2][9] Etymonline dates it to the 1640s, first in Scottish use.^[3] The older soup sense is now chiefly American, according to the Shorter Oxford,^[8] while Johnson (1755) still defined the word as meat boiled in water, a broth.^[12] From 1642 porridge was used figuratively for a hotchpotch or something without substance,^[2][6] and since 1700 for anything of a thick, sticky consistency, such as mud or snow.^[2] The British slang sense, time spent in prison, is recorded from 1950;^[2][13] it probably alludes to porridge as typical prison breakfast food, although it may be a pun on stir, slang for prison.^[13][2] In Scots and northern English the word was often treated as a plural,^[2] with forms such as parritch and porritch.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1533 – porage, a thick soup of vegetables or meat.^[2][9][6]
• 1601 – the spelling porridge, in Jonson's Poetaster.^[9] Etymonline dates it to about 1600.^[3]
• 1642 – a hotchpotch, a jumble.^[2]
• before 1643 – a dish of oatmeal boiled in water or milk.^[2][9]
• 1694 – to save one's breath to cool one's porridge.^[2]
• 1700 – a thick, sticky substance.^[2]
• 1950 – British slang, time spent in prison.^[2][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dish of oatmeal or another cereal boiled in water or milk until thick, often eaten for breakfast.^[15][6][2]
2. (British slang) Time spent in prison, especially in the phrase do porridge.^[15][2]
3. A thick soup of meat and vegetables, often thickened with barley; now chiefly US.^[6][8][2]
4. A hodgepodge or jumble.^[6][2]

Word family

• porridgy
• porridgelike

Related words

• pottage
• porringer
• pot
• porray

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins