Wort

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /wɜːt/
• GenAm IPA: /wɝt/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)t

From Middle English wort, wurt, wirte, from Old English wyrt ("herb, vegetable, plant, crop, root"), from Germanic wurtiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂ds. Cognate with German Wurz ("herb, root"), Danish urt ("herb"), Swedish ört ("herb"), Icelandic jurt ("herb"), Latin rādix ("root"). More at root.

Full definition of wort

Noun

1. A plant; herb; vegetable.
• 1621, Robert Burton,he drinks water, and lives on wort leaves, pulse, like a hogg, or scraps like a dog
• 1845, Rev. Jeremy Taylor, Works:It is an excellent pleasure to be able to take pleasure in worts and water, in bread and onions, for then a man can never want pleasure when it is so ready for him, that nature hath spread it over all its provisions.
2. Any of various plants or herbs. The word is usually used in combination to refer to specific plants, e.g. St. John's wort

Derived terms

From Middle English wort, worte, from Old English wyrt, wyrte ("brewing wort, new beer, spice"), from Proto-Germanic *wurtijō ("spice"), from Proto-Indo-European *werǝd-, *wrād- ("sprout, root"). Cognate with Dutch wort ("wort"), German Würze ("wort, seasoning, spice"), Danish urt ("beer wort"), Swedish vört ("beer wort").

Noun

1. Liquid extract from the ground malt and grain soaked in hot water, the mash, as one of the steps in making beer

Anagrams

• trow