Rawest

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈɹɔː.ɪst/

Definitions

1. Indicating the greatest degree of being uncooked or in a natural state without preparation
2. Describing something that is the least processed or heated, retaining its original uncooked condition
3. Referring to the utmost level of freshness or rawness, often in the context of food or material that is unrefined

Etymology: The superlative "rawest" is simply "raw" with the ending "-est" added, so its story is really the story of "raw." That word descends from a Germanic root, "*hrēwaz," which gave Old English "hrēaw" and is cognate with German "roh" and Dutch "rauw." Its ancestors carried far more than the sense of food left unprepared. The Old English relative "hrēow" meant "rough, fierce, wild, angry, disturbed," and the same root produced the Latin "crūdus," meaning "raw, bloody, uncooked," along with the Irish "cró" and Lithuanian "kraujas," both meaning "blood." The shared thread is something raw and unrefined, whether a wound, a storm, or a carcass. "Crude" is the English doublet of "raw": the two words come from the same root but reached English by different routes, one through Latin "crūdus" and one through the Germanic line, so they share a meaning of unfinished or unrefined material.

Synonyms: most unrefined, most crude

Antonyms: cooked, processed