tartar
/ˈtɑɹ.tɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.88 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A red compound deposited during wine making, mostly potassium hydrogen tartrate; wine stone — a source of cream of tartar.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Alternative spelling of Tatar.
Example Sentences
- "In order to preserve it in the state of protoxide these receipts prescribe various deoxygenating substances to be stirred into the melted glass, such as Smith's clinkers, tartar, soot, rotten wood, and cinnibar."
- "Mrs. Begg said she liked Mrs. Dain, who was a sensible woman and a first-rate housewife, but that Gabrielle was a tartar."
- "Persia is a great country, which was in old times very illustrious and powerful; but now the Tartars have wasted and destroyed it."
- "I haven't escaped sickness all my life to get off easily now. […] I knew when my turn came, it would be a Tartar."
- "Tartar customs"
Etymology
From Old French tartre, from Medieval Latin tartarum, from Byzantine Greek τάρταρον (tártaron), said to be from Arabic دُرْدِيّ (durdiyy), though it is already found in Pelagonius’s Ars veterinaria 46 in the adjective tartarālis, if the reading is correct. Arabic etymon from Persian درد (dord, “dreg”) from Proto-Iranian *dr̥ti- (“manure, feces”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰṛ-to-, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreyd- (“to have diarrhea”), whence also doublet of dirt.
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈtɑɹ.tɚ/
- British English: /ˈtɑː.tə/