pretzel. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

pretzel

SYLLABICATION:	pret·zel
PRONUNCIATION:	prtsl
NOUN:	A glazed, brittle biscuit that is salted on the outside and usually baked in the form of a loose knot or a stick.
ETYMOLOGY:	German Brezel, Pretzel, from Middle High German brzel, przel, from Old High German brezitella, from Medieval Latin ^*brchitellum, diminutive of Latin bracchitus, branched, from bracchium, arm, from Greek brakhn, upper arm. See mregh-u- in Appendix I.
WORD HISTORY:	The German word Brezel or Pretzel, which was borrowed into English (being first recorded in American English in 1856) goes back to the assumed Medieval Latin word brchitellum. This would accord with the story that a monk living in France or northern Italy first created the knotted shape of a pretzel, even though this type of biscuit had been enjoyed by the Romans. The monk wanted to symbolize arms folded in prayer, hence the name derived from Latin bracchitus,* “having branches,” itself from bracchium, “branch, arm.”


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.