Alternative spellings

• • yoghurd
  • yogourt
  • yaghourt
  • yahourt
  • yoghourt
  • yogurd
  • yogurt
  • yohourth
  • yooghort
  • yughard
  • yughurt
  • yoghurt
  • yogurt

Etymology

(yōghurt, yoğurt) ( )

Noun

1. A milk-based product thickened by a bacterium-aided curdling process, and sometimes mixed with fruit or other flavouring; any similar product based on other substances (e.g., soy yoghurt).

Dictionary notes

Though most modern dictionaries list the etymology simply as “Turkish yoğurt” this can be misleading since English began using this word as early as the 16th century but it was not until the 20th century that the modern Turkish spelling yoğurt was devised. A few dictionaries including the OED do not use this modern spelling in their etymologies. The OED prefers “Turkish yōghurt” which presumably represents the pronunciation at the time of the borrowing or a transcription of the old Ottoman Turkish spelling in its variant of the Arabic script.