Clotty

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having a thick, sticky quality that resembles or leads to the formation of clots in a substance
2. Displaying a tendency to clump together in a viscous manner, resulting in non-uniformity in texture
3. Characterized by a dense, uneven texture resembling small clumps or lumps within a substance

Etymology: "Clotty" is a plain formation: the noun "clot," a thickened lump, with the suffix "-y," which turns a noun into an adjective meaning "characterised by" or "full of" the thing named. So a clotty mixture is one full of clots. The adjective appeared in Middle English, where it was built directly on that noun. The more interesting connection lies across the sea. German has "klotzig," meaning bulky, massive or huge, which shares the same underlying idea of a heavy, solid mass. English "clotty" and "cloddy," which means full of clods or lumps of earth, are doublets: two words that arose from the same root but took separate paths into the language. Both reflect the old notion of something dense and lumpen, whether that is curdled milk, wet soil or a heavy mass.

Synonyms: thick, clotted, viscous

Antonyms: thin, liquid