pretzel

English

WOTD – 18 August 2007

A pretzel

Alternative forms

• brezel (rare)
• bretzel (obsolete)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *mreǵʰ-

Proto-Indo-European *-us

Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus

Proto-Hellenic *brəkʰús

Ancient Greek βρᾰχῠ́ς (brăkhŭ́s)

Proto-Indo-European *-yōsder.

Proto-Indo-European *-isō

Proto-Hellenic *-ihō

Ancient Greek -ῑ́ων (-ī́ōn)

Ancient Greek βρᾰχῑ́ων (brăkhī́ōn)bor.

Latin bracchium

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos

Proto-Italic *-ātos

Latin -ātus

Latin brāchiātus

Proto-Indo-European *-lós

Proto-Indo-European *-elós

Proto-Italic *-elos

Latin -lus

Latin -ellus

Vulgar Latin *brāchiātellusbor.

Old High German brēzitella

Middle High German brēzel

German Brezel

German Pretzelbor.

English pretzel

From dialectal German Pretzel, a variant of standard Brezel, from Old High German brēzitella, from Vulgar Latin *brāchiātellus, diminutive of Latin brāchium, bracchium (“arm”); named for the appearance of folded arms.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɛt.səl/, [ˈpʰɹɛʔt͡sɫ̩]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (Australia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛtsəl

Noun

pretzel (plural pretzels)

1. (cooking) A toasted bread or cracker usually in the shape of a loose knot.
   • 1914, Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Our Philadelphia, Chapter 19:

     When I was young, the best Philadelphia could do in the way of combining music and eating—or principally drinking—was at the Mäennerchor Garden at Ninth and Green, where a pretzel might be had with a glass of beer, or a sherry cobbler

   • 1918, Gelett Burgess, Ain't Angie Awful!, Chapter 8:

     Outside, the little birds on the telegraph wires looked in at the moving picture and smiled at one another. Some even wept. Then they flew down into the street and simply raved over a stale pretzel, ten days dead.

2. (figuratively, by extension) Anything that is knotted, twisted, or tangled.
   • 1901, Alice Hegan Rice, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch/Chapter 6, Chapter 6:

     he drew himself up into a regular pretzel of a boy

Derived terms

• get one's panties in a pretzel
• minipretzel
• pretzel-bender
• pretzelize
• pretzel knot
• pretzellike
• pretzel link
• pretzelosity
• pretzel pillow
• pretzel style
• pretzel syndrome

Translations

toasted bread or cracker in the shape of a knot

• Arabic: عُقْدِيَّة f (ʕuqdiyya), بْرِيتْزِل m (brītzil)
• Armenian: բրեցել (brecʻel)
• Belarusian: брэ́цаль m (brécalʹ)
• Bulgarian: гевре́к (bg) m (gevrék), бре́цел m (brécel)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 德國結 / 德国结 (Déguójié), 椒鹽捲餅 / 椒盐卷饼, 鹽味卷餅 / 盐味卷饼

• Czech: preclík (cs) m
• Danish: brezel c, saltkringle c
• Dutch: pretzel (nl) m
• Esperanto: krakeno, breco
• Estonian: vesikringel
• Finnish: rinkeli (fi), viipurinrinkeli
• French: bretzel (fr) m
• Georgian: ბრეცელი (breceli)
• German: Breze (de) f, Brezel (de) f or n, Brezen (de) f or n, Pretzel f or n
• Greek: κουλούρι (el) n (kouloúri), μπρέτσελ n (brétsel)
• Hebrew: בייגלה / בֵּיְגָּלֶה m (béigale)
• Hindi: प्रेट्ज़ल (preṭzal)
• Hungarian: perec (hu)
• Icelandic: kringla (is) f
• Ingrian: krinkeli
• Italian: brezel (it) m
• Japanese: プレッツェル (ja) (purettseru)
• Korean: 브레첼 (beurechel), 프레첼 (peurechel)
• Latin: brecellus (Medieval Latin)
• Latvian: ūdenskliņģeris m, kliņģeris m
• Lithuanian: riestainis m
• Luxembourgish: Bretzel (lb) f
• Macedonian: перек m (perek)
• Norwegian: saltstang
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: چوب شور (čub šur), پِرِتْزِل (peretzel)

• Plautdietsch: Kjrinjel f
• Polish: precel (pl) m
• Portuguese: pretzel m
• Romanian: covrigel (ro) m, covrig (ro) m
• Russian: кре́ндель (ru) m (kréndelʹ), кренделёк (ru) m (krendeljók), (German style) пре́цель (précelʹ), бре́цель (ru) m (brécelʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пѐре̄ц m

  Latin: pèrēc (sh) m

• Slovak: praclík m
• Slovene: prẹ̑sta (sl) f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: kryngel m

  Upper Sorbian: bracl m, pracl m

• Spanish: pretzel (es) m, brezel (es) m
• Swahili: pretseli (sw)
• Swedish: kringla (sv) c, pretzel (sv) c, kringla (sv) c, saltkringla (sv) c
• Turkish: tuzlu simit, pretzel
• Ukrainian: бре́цель m (brécelʹ)
• Yiddish: בייגעלע n (beygele), פּרעצל m (pretsl)

anything that is knotted, twisted, or tangled

• Finnish: solmu (fi), hässäkkä (fi)
• Russian: кре́ндель (ru) m (kréndelʹ), бу́блик (ru) m (búblik), бара́нка (ru) f (baránka)

Verb

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

1. (transitive, Canada, US, informal) To bend, twist, or contort.

   Synonyms: bend, twist, contort, pretzelize, pretzel up

   They discovered a snake pretzelled into knots.

Further reading

• pretzel on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Portuguese

Etymology

From dialectal German Pretzel, a variant of standard Brezel.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈpɾɛt.sew/ [ˈpɾɛt.seʊ̯], /ˈpɾɛt͡ʃ.sew/ [ˈpɾɛt͡ʃ.seʊ̯], /ˈpɾɛ.t͡ʃi.sew/ [ˈpɾɛ.t͡ʃi.seʊ̯]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈpɾɛt.zɛl/ [ˈpɾɛt.zɛɫ]

Noun

pretzel m (plural pretzels)

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

Swedish

Etymology

From German Pretzel, a variant of Brezel. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term. Particularly: “directly, or via English?”

Noun

pretzel c

1. a pretzel

   Synonym: (informal) (salt)kringla

Declension

Declension of pretzel

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	pretzel	pretzels
	definite	pretzeln	pretzelns
plural	indefinite	pretzels, pretzlar	pretzels, pretzlars
	definite	pretzlarna	pretzlarnas

References

• “pretzel”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)