: a sweet almond-flavored nonalcoholic syrup used as a cocktail ingredient or food flavoring
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebAmid chic decor, mixologists lace soft drinks with sophistication-signifiers and wallet-declutterers like orgeat, tobacco syrup, and chinotto orange. Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 19 Apr. 2022 The bar recommends the orgeat from orgeatworks.com.Washington Post, 11 Mar. 2022 But orgeat has potential beyond the wonderful world of cocktails and mocktails. Antara Sinha, Bon Appétit, 10 Aug. 2021 Having a bottle or two of orgeat on hand means an iconic mai tai or a warming Amaro cocktail is only a trip to the liquor store away. Antara Sinha, Bon Appétit, 10 Aug. 2021 It's colored a bright shade of purple with yam and coconut orgeat and flavored with pineapple. Tirion Morris, azcentral, 5 Dec. 2019 Hyatt Regency Maui’s traditional mai tai recipe calls for two ounces of light rum, one ounce of dark rum, three ounces of pineapple juice, one ounce of orange Curaçao, two teaspoons of orgeat syrup, and two ounces of sweet and sour mix. Skye Sherman, Travel + Leisure, 7 Apr. 2020 Here's how to make the winning cocktail: 2 ounces Four Roses Small Batch bourbon.5-ounce branca mentha.25-ounce orgeat2 dash angostura bittersPack glass lightly with crushed ice. Dahlia Ghabour, The Courier-Journal, 6 Mar. 2020 Chase them with La Bamba: a blend of tequila, rum, pineapple, orgeat and lime.Washington Post, 28 Oct. 2019 See More
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from French, going back to Middle French, "syrup made from a decoction of barley," probably borrowed from an Old Occitan predecessor of Occitan ordiat, orjat "orgeat," from Old Occitan ordi, orge "barley" (going back to Latin hordeum) + -at -ate entry 1; Latin hordeum going back to *χorzdei̯om, presumed adjectival derivative from dialectal Indo-European *ghers-do- or *ghors-do-, whence also Germanic *gerstōn- "barley," whence Old Saxon & Old High German gersta "barley," Middle Dutch gerste, garste
Note: The hypothetical Old Occitan word is akin to and perhaps modeled on Italian orzata "beverage or infusion made from barley soaked in water, sweet syrup made from germinated barley grains and other ingredients, orgeat"; see note at horchata. — Attempts have been made to link *ghers-do-/*ghors-do- with another group of words: Greek krīthḗ "grain of barley," krīthaí "barley," Homeric krî (originally a root noun *krīth?), Albanian drithë "cereal, grain," Armenian gari (genitive garwoy) "barley." No single pre-form can unite these words, however, and they all may be borrowed from a pre-Indo-European substratum; compare Basque gari "wheat," perhaps itself a borrowing. In opposition to this hypothesis, *ghers-do-/*ghors-do- have been taken as formed from root extensions of a verbal base *ǵhers- "bristle, become stiff" (see horror entry 1), a name suggested by the long awns of barley; compare Old English gorst gorse, taken as a transfer of the same etymon to a thorny plant.