sauerkraut

[souuh r-krout, sou-er-]

See more synonyms for sauerkraut on Thesaurus.com

noun

cabbage cut fine, salted, and allowed to ferment until sour.

Origin of sauerkraut

1610–20; < German, equivalent to sauer sour + Kraut greens

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for sauerkraut

sauerkraut, kale, savoy, coleslaw, broccoli, colewort

British Dictionary definitions for sauerkraut

sauerkraut

noun

finely shredded and pickled cabbage

Word Origin for sauerkraut

German, from sauer sour + Kraut cabbage

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sauerkraut

1630s, from German Sauerkraut, literally "sour cabbage," from sauer "sour" (from Proto-Germanic *sura-; see sour (adj.)) + Kraut "vegetable, cabbage," from Old High German krut, from Proto-Germanic *kruthan.

They pickle it [cabbage] up in all high Germany, with salt and barberies, and so keepe it all the yeere, being commonly the first dish you have served in at table, which they call their sawerkrant. [James Hart, "Klinike, or the diet of the diseased," 1633]

In U.S. slang, figurative use for "a German" dates from 1858 (cf. kraut). "The effort to substitute liberty-cabbage for sauerkraut, made by professional patriots in 1918, was a complete failure." [Mencken]. French choucroute (19c.) is from Alsatian German surkrut (corresponding to German Sauerkraut), with folk etymology alteration based on chou "cabbage" + croûte "crust" (n.).