sourdough

See also: sour-dough and sour dough

English

From Middle English sour dogh, equivalent to sour +‎ dough, compare German Sauerteig and Dutch zuurdeeg. The senses pertaining to California, Alaska and the Yukon derive from the distinctive pouches of bread starter (starter dough used to make sourdough) worn on a belt or around the neck by experienced prospectors during the Klondike Gold Rush and California Gold Rush.^[1]^[2]

sourdough (countable and uncountable, plural sourdoughs)

A type of bread dough leavened with yeast and lactobacilli that produce acids giving a sour taste. [from 14th c.]
Synonym: sourdough bread
(countable, slang) An old-timer, especially in Alaska. [from 1898]
- 1944, Ernie Pyle, Brave Men, University of Nebraska Press (2001), page 80:
  "The troops went for those fresh tomatoes like sourdoughs going for gold in the Klondike."
(countable, Yukon) A permanent resident of the territory. Someone who has lived in the Yukon during all four seasons.
Antonym: cheechako
(countable, historical) A 49er, a California Gold Rush miner.
(obsolete) Leaven; an agent that makes dough rise.

dough

old-timer

miner

^ (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎^[1], 28 March 2008 (last accessed), archived from the original on 14 September 2009
^ Sourdough baking