orgeat

noun

or·​geat ˈȯr-ˌzhä(t) 

: a sweet almond-flavored nonalcoholic syrup used as a cocktail ingredient or food flavoring

Examples of orgeat in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

At Someday, oysters and a spritz or a Tiger Porch cocktail — made with tequila, tamarind, jasmine tea and orgeat syrup — marks the perfect end to the night. —Meira Gebel, Axios, 10 Sep. 2024

From the bar, look for sake, wine and beer alongside sake and soju cocktails such as lemon, orgeat, strawberry and nigori sake, or sake with lime, basil and cucumber. —Stephanie Breijo, Los Angeles Times, 10 Aug. 2024

Another cocktail on the menu uses avocado washed with Copper & Kings immature brandy, Flor de Cana dark, Grand Marnier, avocado pit orgeat syrup, and lime. —Amanda Hancock, The Courier-Journal, 14 June 2024

Signature cocktails include the Sticky Ricky ($14), made with rum, coconut cream, mango, mint and orgeat, and An Unsympathetic Gentlemen ($15), made with blended scotch, Amontillado sherry, amaro and kumquat vermouth. —Kate Bradshaw, The Mercury News, 17 May 2024

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 *g^hers-do- or *g^hors-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 *g^hers-do-/*g^hors-do- with another group of words: Greek krīthḗ "grain of barley," krīthaí "barley," Homeric krî (originally a root noun *krīt^h?), 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, *g^hers-do-/*g^hors-do- have been taken as formed from root extensions of a verbal base *ǵ^hers- "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.

First Known Use

1754, in the meaning defined above