Offals

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The internal organs and entrails of a butchered animal, often considered waste or by-products
2. Various parts of an animal that are not generally used for high-quality meat, which may include organs like liver or intestines
3. Edible off-cuts and innards taken from a slaughtered animal, typically utilized in certain cuisines or dishes

Etymology: "Offals" is simply the plural of "offal," and the singular has a plain, literal origin: it is built from "off" and "fall," meaning what falls off. In Middle English, "offal" meant refuse or scrap waste in general, so the sense of discarded material came first and the butchery sense grew from it. Old English had a verb "offeallan," meaning "to cut off," which points to the same idea of something separated and dropped away. The word's close relatives across Germanic languages show the same pattern. Dutch "afval" and German "Abfall" both mean waste or refuse, and Swedish "avfall" and Danish "affald" do too. English kept the original sense of rubbish and gave butchers' leftovers their own place within it.

Synonyms: entrails, innards