Etymo

caviar

Salted fish roe served as a food.

Played on · Day 38 · word 2 of 5

A food name borrowed through a plural

How caviar reached English

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  1. Turkish

    havyar

    ‘Brined roe, usually of sturgeon’

  2. Italian

    caviari

    ‘Salted fish roe’

  3. English

    cavery

    ‘Salted roe of large fish’

  4. English

    caviar

    ‘Salted roe’

The story of caviar

Caviar reaches Turkish havyar through the obsolete Italian plural caviari. English earlier used spellings including cavery and caviarie.

Cavery and caviarie are alternative earlier spellings, not consecutive steps. Caviare is also a modern English spelling variant.

Sources

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