vinegar

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A sour liquid formed by the fermentation of alcohol used as a condiment or preservative; a dilute solution of acetic acid.

   In Persia, newly married couples were presented with sheep's trotters steeped in vinegar as a love enticement.

2. 2
   noun

   Any variety of vinegar.

   a range of herb-flavoured vinegars

3. 3
   noun

   Vigor; vitality.

   You full of vinegar now, but you 'bout through / We gonna get a steam drill to do your share of driving / Then what's all them muscles gonna do? Huh, John Henry? / Gonna take a little bit of vinegar out of you.

4. 4
   verb

   To season or otherwise treat with vinegar.

   Accordingly, after a vast amount of moaning and crying up-stairs, and much damping of foreheads, and vinegaring of temples, and hartshorning of noses, and so forth […]

5. 5
   noun

   sour-tasting liquid produced usually by oxidation of the alcohol in wine or cider and used as a condiment or food preservative

6. 6
   noun

   dilute acetic acid

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weh₁y-? Proto-Indo-European *-ō? Proto-Indo-European *wéyh₁ō Proto-Italic *wīnom Latin vīnum Old French vin Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-rós Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱrós Proto-Italic *akris Classical Latin ācer Late Latin ācrus Old French aigre Old French vinaigrebor. Middle English vynegre English vinegar From Middle English vynegre, from Old French vinaigre from Old French vyn egre, based on Latin vīnum (“wine”) + Latin ācer (“sour”). Displaced Old English æċed (survived in Middle English eced).