WikiWord

English

tart

/tɑɹt/ · adj

Meaning

  1. Sharp to the taste; acid; sour.
  2. High or too high in acidity.
  3. Sharp; keen; severe.
  4. A type of small open pie, or piece of pastry, now typically containing jelly (US) / jam (UK) or conserve, or sometimes other fillings (chocolate, custard, egg, butter, historically even meat or other savory fillings).
  5. A melt (block of wax for use in a tart burner).
  6. A prostitute.
  7. Any woman with loose sexual morals.
  8. To practice prostitution.
  9. To practice promiscuous sex.
  10. To dress garishly, ostentatiously, whorishly, or sluttily.
  11. A surname.

Etymology / origin

From Middle English tart, from Old English teart (“sharp, rough, severe”), from Proto-West Germanic *tart, from Proto-Germanic *tartaz (“rough, sharp, tearing”), from Proto-Germanic *teraną (“to tear”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to flay, split, cleave”). Related to Scots tairt (“tart; tartness”), Dutch tarten (“to defy, challenge, mock”), German trotzen (“to defy, brave, mock”), perhaps Albanian thartë (“sour, acid, sharp”).

  1. thartë(Albanian)
  2. trotzen(German)
  3. tarten(Dutch)
  4. tairt(sco)
  5. *der-(ine-pro)
  6. *teraną(gem-pro)
  7. *tartaz(gem-pro)
  8. *tart(gmw-pro)
  9. teart(Old English)
  10. tart(Middle English)
  11. tart (English)
  12. Relations: inh, inh, inh, inh, der, der, cog, cog, cog, cog

Related words

Descendant words

Sources

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