Definitions

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

  • noun An infusion of malt that is fermented to make beer.
  • noun A plant. Often used in combination.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as whort.
  • noun The infusion of malt which after fermentation becomes beer.
  • noun An infusion of malt, formerly used in scurvy and as a dressing to foul ulcers.
  • noun A plant; herb; vegetable.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A plant of any kind.
  • noun Cabbages.
  • noun An infusion of malt which is unfermented, or is in the act of fermentation; the sweet infusion of malt, which ferments and forms beer; hence, any similar liquid in a state of incipient fermentation.

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

  • noun Liquid extract from the ground malt and grain soaked in hot water, the mash, as one of the steps in making beer
  • noun A plant; herb; vegetable.
  • noun Any of various plants or herbs. The word is usually used in combination to refer to specific plants, e.g. St. John’s wort; however, it may be used on its own as a generic term.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun usually used in combination: `liverwort'; `milkwort'; `whorlywort'
  • noun unfermented or fermenting malt

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old English wyrt; see wrād- in Indo-European roots.]

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

[Middle English, from Old English wyrt; see wrād- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English wort, wurt, wirte, from Old English wyrt ("herb, vegetable, plant, crop, root"), fromGermanic 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.

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