offal

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the edible internal organs and other trimmings of a butchered animal

   The cook braised the offal slowly with onions and herbs.

2. 2
   noun

   waste or by-product left from a manufacturing or agricultural process, especially grain milling

   The mill sold its grain offal as feed for livestock.

Simplified etymology

Offal was formed from off and fall and originally denoted anything that fell away or was removed during processing, including grain husks and wood scraps. Its more specific use for an animal’s internal parts used as food also dates from late Middle English. Comparable formations occur in other Germanic languages.

From Middle English offal, literally material that 'falls off' when something is cut or processed, from off + fall. The older broad sense 'scraps or refuse from a process' narrowed in butchery to discarded or edible organs and trimmings; compare Dutch afval, 'waste.'

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