brackish

English

Etymology

From Scottish brack (from Dutch brak (“brackish”)) +‎ -ish.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɹækɪʃ/
• Rhymes: -ækɪʃ

Adjective

brackish (comparative more brackish, superlative most brackish)

1. (of water) Salty or slightly salty, as a mixture of fresh and sea water, such as that found in estuaries.
   • 1638, Sir Thomas Herbert, Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique:

     ...by a low courſe and too long ſporting with the briny Ocean it taſts brackiſh and inſalubrious...

   • 1992, Joyce Carol Oates, Black Water, Penguin Books, paperback edition, page 4.

     On all sides a powerful brackish marshland odor, the odor of damp, and decay, and black earth, black water.

   • 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, Random House.

     The water we took on at Chatham Isle is now brackish & without a dash of brandy in it, my stomach rebels.

2. Distasteful; unpleasant; not appealing to the taste. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. Repulsive (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

• brackishly
• brackishness

Translations

slightly salty

• Bulgarian: леко солен (leko solen)
• Catalan: salabrós
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (no adjective exists; "brackish water":) 汽水 (zh) (qìshuǐ), 半海水 (bànhǎishuǐ)

• Danish: brak, (brackish water) brakt vand, brakvand (da) n
• Dutch: brak (nl)
• Finnish: murto- (fi)
• French: saumâtre (fr) m or f
• German: brackig (de), salzig (de)
• Hungarian: brakk, félsós
• Icelandic: ísaltur
• Indonesian: payau (id)
• Irish: goirt
• Italian: salmastra f, salmastro (it) m
• Manx: sailjey
• Maori: kurutai, kurutaitai, mātaitai, kōtaitai
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: brakk (no), (brackish water) brakt vann / vatn, brakkvann (no) n, brakkvatn n

  Nynorsk: brakk, (brackish water) brakt vatn, brakkvatn n

• Polish: słonawy (pl)
• Portuguese: salobro (pt) m, salobre m or f
• Romanian: sălcie f, sălciu (ro) m
• Russian: солонова́тый (ru) (solonovátyj), солёный (ru) (soljónyj)
• Spanish: salobre (es)
• Swedish: bräckt (sv)
• Tagalog: matabsing
• Thai: กร่อย (th) (grɔ̀i)
• Welsh: lled hallt

distasteful; unpleasant; not appealing to the taste

• Finnish: epämiellyttävä (fi)
• German: brackig (de)
• Japanese: まずい (ja) (mazui)
• Maori: kōtaitai
• Russian: проти́вный (ru) (protívnyj)
• Spanish: desabrido (es)

repulsive — see repulsive