pretzel

English

WOTD – 18 August 2007
A pretzel

Etymology

From dialectal German Pretzel, a variant of standard Brezel, from Old High German brezzila, from Medieval Latin brachiatellum, diminutive of Latin bracchium (“arm”); named for the appearance of folded arms.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpɹɛt.səl/, [ˈpʰɹɛʔt͡sɫ̩]
  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun

pretzel (plural pretzels)

  1. (cooking) A toasted bread or cracker usually in the shape of a loose knot.
  2. (by extension) Anything that is knotted, twisted, or tangled.

Translations

Verb

pretzel (third-person singular simple present pretzels, present participle pretzelling or (US) pretzeling, simple past and past participle pretzelled or (US) pretzeled)

  1. (transitive, Canada, US, informal) To bend, twist, or contort.
    Synonyms: bend, twist, contort
    They discovered a snake pretzelled into knots.

Further reading

Portuguese

Noun

pretzel m (plural pretzels)

  1. pretzel (toasted bread or cracker in the shape of a knot)
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