Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The fermented milk of a mare or camel, used as a beverage by certain peoples of western and central Asia.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun 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.
  • noun 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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of koumiss.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Russian kumys, from Old Russian komyzŭ, from Old Turkic qïmïz, from qammaq, to shake.]

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Examples

  • They drink a beverage called kumiss, which is fermented mare's milk.

    The Saracen: Land of the Infidel Robert Shea 1963

  • 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.

    The Lactase Gene: A Precursor to Cultural Evolution? Steve Carper 2006

  • 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.

    Archive 2006-04-01 Steve Carper 2006

  • 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".

    Archive 2004-09-01 Ray Girvan 2004

  • 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".

    Doing the tell Ray Girvan 2004

  • 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."

    languagehat.com: LANGUAGE IN CENTRAL ASIA. 2004

  • 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.'

    languagehat.com: BISHKEK/PISHPEK. 2004

  • 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'.

    languagehat.com: BISHKEK/PISHPEK. 2004

  • It was the women who prepared kumiss, and they also made cheese.

    What Men Live By, and other tales 2003

  • The mares were milked, and from the milk kumiss was made.

    What Men Live By, and other tales 2003

Comments

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  • I am not shaken or remiss (ruemiss)?!

    May 15, 2012