sauerkraut

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsaʊəˌkɹaʊt/ (UK); /ˈsaʊɚˌkɹaʊt/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Sauerkraut (“sour cabbage”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from German sauer (“sour”) + Kraut (“vegetable, cabbage”).^[2][3][4][5] It is related to sour and kraut.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cabbage cut fine and fermented in its own juice with salt (1617 as souer craut in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster; 1633 in the OED).^[3][5][7]

Semantic evolution

A form sour-crout is recorded from 1775.^[3] In U.S. slang the word meant a German from 1858.^[4][7] During the First World War an attempt to rename it liberty cabbage failed.^[4] French choucroute is the same German word, reshaped by folk etymology.^[4]

Timeline

• 1617 – souer craut.^[3][5]
• 1775 – sour-crout.^[3]
• 1858 – slang, a German.^[4][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Finely chopped cabbage salted and fermented in its own juice.
2. (U.S. slang) A German.

Related words

• kraut
• sour
• choucroute

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press