Barm
WordNet
noun
(1) A commercial leavening agent containing yeast cells; used to raise the dough in making bread and for fermenting beer or whiskey
WiktionaryText
Noun
- Bosom, lap.
- Late C14: And with that word this faucon gan to crie / And swowned eft in Canacees barm. — Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Squire's Tale’, Canterbury Tales
Etymology 2
From beorma. The cake sense is possibly a shortened form of barmcake, which would be made with yeast as described in that sense. Possibly it is from the báirín breac, a type of cake.
Noun
- Foam rising upon beer, or other malt liquors, when fermenting, and used as leaven in making bread and in brewing; yeast.
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- 1882: In 1577 yeast, called barm, is bought at 9d. the pail. — James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 4, p. 620.
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- A small flat round, individual loaf, or roll of bread.
See also
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