bittern
The liquor remaining after halite (common salt) has been harvested from saline water (brine).
Noun
- The liquor remaining after halite (common salt) has been harvested from saline water (brine).
- The saline substance added to soy milk to coagulate it as a primary step in the production of tofu.
- Now we add the bittern. - 2019, “The Secrets of Tofu across Japan”, in Seasoning the Seasons, NHK World-Japan:
- A very bitter compound of quassia, cocculus indicus, etc., used by fraudulent brewers in adulterating beer.
Origin
From bitter with an unclear suffix, perhaps a dialect form of -ing.
Forms
Noun Entry 2
- Several bird species in the Botaurinae subfamily of the heron family Ardeidae.
- It is a great rock or cliff on the loneliest part of the mountains, and […] is known by the name of the Garden Rock. Near the foot of it is a small lake, the haunt of the solitary bittern, with water-snakes basking in...
Origin
From Middle English bitour, botor, from Old French butor, from Gallo-Roman *butitaurus, a blend of Latin būtiō (“bittern”) and taurus (“bull, ox”).
Forms
Related
Derived
American bittern Australasian bittern black bittern cinnamon bittern common bittern dwarf bittern Eurasian bittern forest bittern least bittern little bittern New Zealand bittern pinnated bittern stripe-backed bittern sunbittern sun bittern sun-bittern Von Schrenck's bittern yellow bittern