Chowders

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of thick soup usually containing seafood or vegetables, characterized by its creamy texture and often enriched with milk or cream
2. Hearty dishes that combine various ingredients, typically seafood or vegetables, thickened and flavored with cream or milk
3. A flavorful, rich stew made from a variety of ingredients, commonly featuring clams or corn, served warm and creamy

Etymology: "Chowders" is simply the plural of "chowder," so the word's history is the history of the singular. The most likely origin is the French "chaudière," meaning cooking-pot, which came from Late Latin "caldāria," a vessel for hot water, built on Latin "caldus," meaning hot. That makes "chowder" a cousin of "cauldron," a word whose English form came through a different route from the same root, so the two share an ancestor and a kitchen. The French link is not fully settled. Some scholars instead connect the word to an older English term, "jowter," meaning fishmonger, which would point to a very different, seafaring origin for the dish's name. The cooking-pot theory fits the way the stew was made, a big pot of ingredients simmered together, and it is the one most often accepted.

Synonyms: soup, stew, broth, bisque, goulash