leavening
[lev-uh-ning]
- Also called leavening agent. a substance used to produce fermentation in dough or batter; leaven.
- the act or process of causing to ferment by leaven.
- leaven(def 3).
Origin of leavening
leaven
[lev-uh n]
- a substance, as yeast or baking powder, that causes fermentation and expansion of dough or batter.
- fermented dough reserved for producing fermentation in a new batch of dough.
- an element that produces an altering or transforming influence.
- to add leaven to (dough or batter) and cause to rise.
- to permeate with an altering or transforming element.
Origin of leaven
1300–50; Middle English levain < Anglo-French, Old French levain < Vulgar Latin *levāmen, equivalent to Latin levā(re) to raise + -men deverbal noun suffix (probably not continuous with Latin levāmen means of alleviating, solace)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for leavening
Contemporary Examples
So why do we hear so many professors describe their pupils as hostile to learning, with a leavening of indolence?
Historical Examples
The leaven, silently but surely, was leavening the surrounding mass.
The Oxford ReformersFrederic Seebohm
The mass is leavened only by the leavening of the separate units.
Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St LukeHenry Burton
All this time Rome was leavening the nations who had conquered her.
Young Folks' History of RomeCharlotte Mary Yonge
A little leaven is leavening the whole mass for other bread.
At Home And AbroadMargaret Fuller Ossoli
There was a leavening of women in this male mass of loggers, fishermen, and what-not.
The Hidden PlacesBertrand W. Sinclair
leaven
- any substance that produces fermentation in dough or batter, such as yeast, and causes it to rise
- a piece of such a substance kept to ferment a new batch of dough
- an agency or influence that produces a gradual change
- to cause fermentation in (dough or batter)
- to pervade, causing a gradual change, esp with some moderating or enlivening influence
Word Origin
C14: via Old French ultimately from Latin levāmen relief, (hence, raising agent, leaven), from levāre to raise
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for leavening
leaven
v.
c.1400, from leaven (n.). Related: Leavened; leavening.
leaven
n.
mid-14c., from Old French levain "leaven, sourdough" (12c.), from Latin levamen "alleviation, mitigation," but used in Vulgar Latin in its literal sense of "a means of lifting, something that raises," from levare "to raise" (see lever). Figurative use from late 14c.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper