Chiterlinge

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The small intestines of a pig, cleaned and cooked as a traditional dish, especially in Southern American cooking
2. Pork offal in the form of washed and boiled pig intestines, served as a soul food or regional delicacy
3. A dish made from the cleaned intestines of a hog, prepared by frying, stewing or boiling in many rural traditions

Etymology: Chitterlings, the fried intestines of a pig, are named for a word that once meant something quite different. The English term is a descendant of Old English "cierlen" and related forms, and its ancestry points to the belly and guts in general rather than to any one dish. The -ling ending is a diminutive, so the word originally carried the sense of small entrails, the lesser organs of the belly. The food sense developed over several centuries, and the word has long been used with a more specific meaning in English. The spelling "chitterlings" is the form found in modern dictionaries, while older spellings varied widely, including "chiterlinge," which is the form you have given here. The word has been associated with Southern American and Black Southern cooking traditions for generations, where it became a staple dish.