rennet
/ˈɹɛnɪt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.17 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An enzyme used as the first step in making cheese, to curdle the milk and coagulate the casein in it, derived by soaking the fourth stomach of a milk-fed calf in brine.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Alternative form of reinette.
Example Sentences
Etymology
From Middle English rennet, from Old English *rynnet, *ġerynnet, from Proto-West Germanic *garunniþu (“coagulation, curdling, rennet”), cognate with Old Saxon girunnida (“a running together, coagulation”), Old High German girunnida (“rennet, coagulation”), Middle High German gerinnede (“that which is curdled”). Compare also Middle English renelesse, renels, renlys, rendlys (“rennet”), Middle Dutch rinsel, runsel (“rennet”), German Rennsel; further to Middle English irennen (“to curdle; to run”), Old English ġerennan (“to coagulate”), Old High German girunst (“rennet”), German gerinnen (“to coagulate; congeal”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: rennet, *rynnet, *garunniþu