‖ charqui
(ˈtʃɑːkɪ)
Also charquè.
[Quichua (Peruvian) ccharqui dried slice of flesh or hung beef. The corruption jerkin occurs in Captain J. Smith a 1612, and jerk vb. in Anson a 1748.]
Beef prepared for keeping by cutting into thin slices and drying in the wind and sun; ‘jerked’ beef (the latter being a corruption of this word).
| 1760–72 tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. II. viii. ix. 271 [Chili]..supplies [Peru] with wheat..besides sole leather..Grassa, Charqui, and neat tongues. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. xii. (1873) 260 The miners are allowed a little charqui. 1850 Prescott Peru v. (Skeat) The male deer and some of the..sheep were slaughtered.. and their flesh cut into thin slices was distributed among the people, who converted it into charqui. 1871 Gd. Words 716 Cattle..the flesh of which is converted into charquè, better known as jerked beef. |
| attrib. 1865 Daily Tel. 21 Nov. 7/2 An unlucky prejudice against their meat in the dry or charqui state. |
Hence
charqued a., ‘jerked’.
| 1821 Monthly Rev. XCVI. 87 Charqued beef is, in this district, a great article of exportation. |