tartar

• (General American) enPR: tärʹ-tər, IPA^(key): /ˈtɑɹ.tɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tärʹ-tər, IPA^(key): /ˈtɑː.tə/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: tar‧tar
• Homophone: tarter

From Old French tartre, from Medieval Latin tartarum, from Byzantine Greek τάρταρον (tártaron), said to be from Arabic دُرْدِيّ‎ (durdiyy), though it is already found in Pelagius’s Ars veterinaria 46 in the adjective tartarālis, if the reading is correct.

tartar (countable and uncountable, plural tartars)

1. A red compound deposited during wine making; mostly potassium hydrogen tartrate - a source of cream of tartar.
2. A hard yellow deposit on the teeth.

• cream of tartar
• tartarous

From figurative use of Tartar.

tartar (plural tartars)

1. (dated) A fearsome or angrily violent person.
   • 1929, Dashiell Hammett, The Dain Curse, New York: Vintage, 1972, Chapter 3, p. 28,

     Mrs. Begg said she liked Mrs. Dain, who was a sensible woman and a first-rate housewife, but that Gabrielle was a tartar.

• tartar sauce

tartar (not comparable)

1. tartare (chopped fine and served raw)

   tartar-pihvi

   steak tartare

Not inflected; used only as modifier.

• tartar-kastike

tartar

1. A dish prepared with finely chopped, raw ingredients; in English the names of these dishes are formed with the adjective "tartare".

   Alkupalaksi tarjottiin lohitartaria.

   A salmon tartare was served as appetizer.

• tarrat

tartar f (invariable)

1. Alternative spelling of tartare

tartar m (feminine singular tartare, masculine plural tartars, feminine plural tartares)

1. Tartar (of or relating to any of several Turkic groups)

• French: tartare m or f

• tartare on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330-1500) (in French)

·tartar

1. passive singular present subjunctive perfective prototonic of do·beir

tartar m (plural tartares)

1. tartar