Brined

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /bɹaɪnd/

Definitions

1. Having undergone a preservation process using saltwater, this entails both soaking in brine for flavor enhancement and treating food to enhance its longevity and taste
2. Involving submersion in a salty liquid solution, this method serves to enhance flavor while simultaneously preserving various food items
3. Soaked in a saltwater solution to preserve or flavor food items

Etymology: The past participle "brined" is simply the -ed form of "brine," so its story is really the story of the noun. Old English "brīne" meant salt water, and it traveled through Middle English as "brine" or "bryne" before settling into the sense we know. Its deeper origin is uncertain, though one proposed ancestor is a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to cut" or "to maim," which is a surprisingly violent beginning for a word about pickling liquid. Scholars also suggest an alternative ancestor, a Proto-Indo-European form tied to the sea, which would link "brine" to the Latin "marinus," meaning "of the sea." Neither origin is settled, so the two possibilities remain open. Related words in Scots, West Frisian and Dutch all share the same root, showing that the word belongs to a family of Germanic terms for salty water.

Synonyms: salted