Clabber

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈklæb.ə(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. A dairy substance formed when milk curdles through bacterial activity and fermentation
2. A thickened product resulting from the souring of milk as it undergoes fermentation by microorganisms
3. A type of thickened dairy mixture that occurs when milk curdles due to bacterial fermentation and enzymatic action

Etymology: Clabber is a shortening of "bonny clabber," and the "bonny" part is the older, more mysterious half of the phrase. The second element comes from Irish "bainne clábar," which means something like "mud milk" or "thick milk for churning." The Irish word is linked to Scots Gaelic cognates, and those are probably related to "láib," meaning dirt, mud, or filth. So the name for soured milk literally carries the sense of muddy, churned-up dairy. The image is apt. Milk left to sour thickens into a soft, curdled mass, and in the days before refrigeration that is exactly what a farmhouse would have found in its crocks. The word thus describes the texture of the food rather than any process of making it, and the mud in its ancestry is a reminder that the thing it names was once a plain, rough product of the farm.