Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The fermented milk of a mare or camel, used as a beverage by certain peoples of western and central Asia.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A common beverage of the nomads of northern Asia, consisting of fermented mares' milk, resembling sour buttermilk, but clear and free from greasiness. The Kirghiz and others distil an intoxicating liquor from it.
- n. A fermented dietetic and sanitary drink made in western countries, in imitation of the preceding, from cows' milk with sugar and yeast, and allowed to ferment until it becomes effervescent and slightly alcoholic.
Wiktionary
- n. alternative spelling of koumiss.
Etymologies
- Russian kumys, from Old Russian komyzŭ, from Old Turkic qïmïz, from qammaq, to shake. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“They drink a beverage called kumiss, which is fermented mare's milk.”
“And at some point after that, they started regularly collecting the milk and using it, either to feed motherless children, or to process it into yogurt, kumiss, kefir, and other milk products.”
“As no-one knew the etymology of the old name, Pishpek, they chose a new one, the nearest word phonetically in Kyrgyz: bishkek, which means "kumiss-whisk".”
“It turned out that the etymology of the indigenous name Pishpek was unknown; the nearest Kyrgyz word was bishkek 'whisk with which kumiss is stirred.”
“It says the name goes back to a term meaning 'place below the mountains', which popular etymology or eggcornism converted into the word for a kumiss 'churn'.”
“After a brief post focusing on a recipe for kumiss (which is what you make with a bishkek), he quoted a series of passages from Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow (a wonderful book, which these tastes make me want to reread) dealing with the "mad scavenger" Tchitcherine, sent to Seven Rivers country (south of Lake Balkhash: Semirechye in Russian, Zhetysu in Kazakh) "to give the tribesmen out here, this far out, an alphabet.”
“It was the women who prepared kumiss, and they also made cheese.”
“The mares were milked, and from the milk kumiss was made.”
“Then they began drinking kumiss again, and offered Pahom some tea, but he would not wait.”
“They talked a while, and after drinking some more kumiss and eating some more mutton, they had tea again, and then the night came on.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘kumiss’.
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phrontistery - k
from phrontistery.info
kainotophobia, kaiserin, kakidrosis, kakistocracy, kakorrhaphiophobia, kalamkari, kaleidophone, kalology, kalon, kalpis, kalyptra, kame and 189 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Originally
Being a list of words which have the word "originally" in their definitions. Sometimes this takes the form "originally... now...."
leave, primitively, sherry, boulevard, pressboard, Zouave, wolfhound, Babenberg, kumiss, Chickasaw, azalea, bombardon and 19 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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Liquor is Quicker
Fermented and distilled.
usquebaugh, whisky, malt whisky, grain whisky, bourbon, scotch, gin, vodka, brandy, cognac, Armagnac, Pisco and 71 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for kumiss.
fbharjo I am not shaken or remiss (ruemiss)?! May 14, 2012