sauerkraut
[souuh r-krout, sou-er-]
- cabbage cut fine, salted, and allowed to ferment until sour.
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Origin of sauerkraut
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
sauerkraut
- finely shredded and pickled cabbage
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Word Origin
German, from sauer sour + Kraut cabbage
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 sauerkraut
n.
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.).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper