pretzel
English
WOTD – 18 August 2007
Etymology
From dialectal German Pretzel, a variant of standard Brezel, from Old High German brezzila, from Medieval Latin brachiatellum, diminutive of Latin bracchium (“arm”); named for the appearance of folded arms.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpɹɛt.səl/, [ˈpʰɹɛʔt͡sɫ̩]
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file)
Noun
pretzel (plural pretzels)
- (cooking) A toasted bread or cracker usually in the shape of a loose knot.
- (by extension) Anything that is knotted, twisted, or tangled.
Translations
toasted bread or cracker in the shape of a knot
|
|
anything that is knotted, twisted, or tangled
|
|
Verb
pretzel (third-person singular simple present pretzels, present participle pretzelling or (US) pretzeling, simple past and past participle pretzelled or (US) pretzeled)
- (transitive, Canada, US, informal) To bend, twist, or contort.
- Synonyms: bend, twist, contort
- They discovered a snake pretzelled into knots.
Further reading
pretzel on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Portuguese
Noun
pretzel m (plural pretzels)
- pretzel (toasted bread or cracker in the shape of a knot)