Meerrettich

German

Etymology

From Middle High German merretich, from Old High German meriratih. Equivalent to Meer (“sea”) +‎ Rettich (“radish”), from the use of Meer to mean “foreign”, as also in Meerkatze, Meerschweinchen. The fact that horseradish is most often eaten in Germany with fish is coincidental, though speakers may make that connection.

Alternative etymologies suggest that the first part of the compound is mehr (“more”, here in the sense of “greater, bigger”) or Mähre (“mare, horse”). However, the Old High German spellings clearly support the first-mentioned derivation. Eventually, this compound may go back to a phono-semantic matching of Latin armoracia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmeː(r)ˌrɛtɪç/, [ˈmeː(ɐ̯)ˌʁɛtɪç]

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

Meerrettich m (strong, genitive Meerrettichs, plural Meerrettiche)

1. horseradish
2. a white condiment or sauce made from horseradish, oil, vinegar, and often cream

Declension

Declension of Meerrettich [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Meerrettich	die	Meerrettiche
genitive	eines	des	Meerrettichs	der	Meerrettiche
dative	einem	dem	Meerrettich	den	Meerrettichen
accusative	einen	den	Meerrettich	die	Meerrettiche

Synonyms

• Kren (Austria, Bavaria, and parts of southern Germany)

Further reading

• “Meerrettich” in Duden online
• “Meerrettich” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache