Word of the Day

Zwieback

 

Pronunciation 

[ZWEE-bak]                                                                                                                       

Part of speech

Noun                                                                                                                                             

Origin

German, mid-19th century                                                                                                                                           

Definition(s)

  1. A rusk or cracker made by baking a small loaf and then toasting slices until they are dry and crisp.[1]
  2. A usually sweetened bread first baked as a loaf and later cut into slices and toasted.[2]

Used in a sentence           

  1. When I'm sick I always want to eat my mom's tomato soup with a side of zwieback.
  2. The waiter served a basket of zwieback before dropping off the salads.        

About the Word

If you have an upset stomach, or a teething toddler, you probably have zwieback in the pantry. In German, "zwie" means twice and "back" means bake — which is a pretty literal description of this dry toast. Slices of bread are crisped up with a second baking.                                   

Did you know?

In Germany it's "zwieback." In the U.S. you might find it as rusk or melba toast. In French it's "biscotte," and in Italian it's "fette biscottate." Order "prepečenec" in Slovene, and "dvopek" in Croatian.                    

Popularity Over Time

Popularity over time graph

The Word of the Day can also be found in the following places:

Courtesy of Wordgenius.com and AHDictionary.com

[1] Courtesy WordGenius.com

[2] Courtesy American Heritage Dictionary Online (AHDictionary.com)