brackish

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   slightly salty (especially from containing a mixture of seawater and fresh water)

   A brackish lagoon.

2. 2
   adj

   Salty or slightly salty, as a mixture of fresh and sea water, such as that found in estuaries.

   ...by a low courſe and too long ſporting with the briny Ocean it taſts brackiſh and inſalubrious...

3. 3
   adj

   Distasteful; unpleasant; not appealing to the taste.

   Therefore the bread he had to eat Seemed brackish, less like corn than tares;.

4. 4
   adj

   distasteful and unpleasant

From Scottish brack (from Middle Dutch brac (“brackish”)) + -ish. Cognate with Dutch brak (“brackish”), German Low German brack, brakerg, brakig (“brackish”), German brackig (“brackish”), Danish brak (“brackish”), Swedish bräck (“brackish”), Norwegian brakk (“brackish”). Perhaps a distant doublet of brook.

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