pottage
(ˈpɒtɪdʒ)
Forms: 3–7 potage, 6– pottage, (6 -adge).
[ME. potage, a. F. potage, lit. that which is put in a pot: see pot n.1 and -age. Orig. stressed poˈtage, which was admitted in verse down to Chaucer and Lydgate, but ˈpotage is found in alliterative poems (and prose) in 14th c., and led to the later spelling. See also poddish, porridge, altered forms of this word.]
1. A dish composed of vegetables alone, or along with meat, boiled to softness in water, and appropriately seasoned; soup, esp. a thick soup. In ancient cookery, often a highly composite dish.
Now chiefly a literary word, historical, archaic, scriptural, or used of the soups of primitive peoples: no longer a term of English cookery. But the French form is in use in names of dishes really French or supposed to be: see potage.
| α a 1225 Ancr. R. 412 Hwoso is euer feble eteð potage bliðeliche. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 8339 Wo þat misȝte weodes abbe & þe roten gnawe Oþer seþe & make potage was þer of wel vawe. a 1300 Cursor M. 3549 Esau..for his fill o þat potage, Als a wreche, has sald his heritage. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 638 Syþen potage & polment in plater honest. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 310 Had ȝe potage and payn ynough and peny-ale to drynke..Ȝe had riȝt ynough. c 1386 Chaucer Monk's T. 443 Whanne wol the Gayler bryngen oure potage? c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxvi. 123 Þai hafe nowþer peise ne wortes, ne oþer maner of potagez; bot in for þaire potage þai vse broth and sothen flesch. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 15 A potage on fysshday.—Take an Make a styf Poshote of Milke an Ale; þan take..whyte Swete Wyne..& put Sugre..þer-to, or hony;..kepe it a[s] whyte as yt may be, & þan serue f[orth]. Ibid. 29 A potage on a Fysdaye.—Take an sethe an .ij. or .iij. Applys..& Flowre of Rys..whyte Wyne..Saunderys & Safroun..Roysonys of corauns..& Almaundys..; and mynce Datys Smale.., and a lytil Hony to make it dowcet, or ellys Sugre. 1531 Elyot Gov. i. xiii, A gentil man, er he take a cooke..wyll.. examine hym, howe many sortes of meates, potages, and sauces, he can perfectly make. 1542 Boorde Dyetary xii. (1870) 262 Potage is not so moche vsed in al Crystendom as it is vsed in Englande. Potage is made of the lyquor in the which flesshe is soden in, with puttyng-to chopped herbes, and otemel and salt. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iv. xxi. 270 They..roast it, and make many sorts of potages. 1682 [see plum-pottage]. |
| β 1530 Palsgr. 257/1 Pottage, potage, sovppe. Ibid., Pottage without herbes, potage. 1539 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) VI. 92 A whit sylver goblet that I use to ett pottadge. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 101 Now leekes are in season, for pottage full good. 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa iii. 142 The meat and pottage is put al in one dish; out of which euery one taketh with his greasie fists what he thinkes good. a 1658 Cleveland Rel. Quaker 24 Hadst thou sweetned thy Gumbs With Pottage of Plumbs. 1712 E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 203 The Papas are either boil'd, roasted, or made into Pottage. 1747 Wesley Prim. Physic (1762) 85 Drink largely of Pottage made with Lentils. 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. Bagman's Dog, Now just such a mess of delicious hot pottage Was smoking away when they enter'd the cottage. 1874 Oxford Bible-Helps 117 The red lentil is most esteemed, and is made into pottage. 1904 Daily News 18 Apr. 4/2 He has acquired..of the native [Kaffir] a knowledge intimate and strange, such as one can only gather by the fireside, over the pottage. |
b. fig.: often with reference to Esau's ‘mess of pottage’ (
mess n. 2).
| 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love i. iv. (Skeat) l. 26 Thou..haste so mikel eaten of the potages of foryetfulnesse. a 1845 A. E. Bray Warleigh xxi, Captain Butler..came up to the elbow of the temperate divine, and bidding him, very unceremoniously, ‘leave off his pottage’, shoved him aside, and stepped into his place. 1868 H. Law Beacons of Bible 228 You are self-slain when you prefer the pottage to Christ. |
† 2. Oatmeal porridge.
Obs.| 1683 Tryon Way to Health 30 Gruels and Pottage made of Oatmeal, being made thin, and quick boyled, are of an excellent Nature. 1724 in Ramsay's Tea-t. Misc. (1733) I. 89 There will be lang-kail and pottage And bannocks of barley-meal. 1794 Donaldson Agric. Perth 24 The food of the reapers..for supper, pottage of oat-meal, salt and water, with the allowance of milk made to the ploughman. 1797 Monthly Mag. III. 203 Oatmeal is..not unfrequently used in making pottage, among the lower classes [in the West Riding]. |
† 3. A poultice.
Obs. rare—1.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 42 Leie þerto a potage..maad of eerbis & swynes greece & water & wheete flour. |
† 4. In proverbial phrases:
a mess of pottage: see
mess n. 2;
to keep one's breath to cool one's pottage: see
porridge n. 4;
to make pottage of a flint, to be economical or parsimonious.
Obs.| 1650 H. More Observ. in Enthus. Tri., etc. (1656) 78 Keep your breath to your self to cool your pottage. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. vi. §37. 85 For their fare, it was course in the quality, and yet slender in the quantity thereof. Insomuch, that they would, in a manner, make pottage of a flint. |
5. attrib. and
Comb., as
pottage dish,
pottage plate,
pottage pot;
pottage-eating adj.;
† pottage-ware, materials for pottage, pot-herbs.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. vii. 57 Nowe potage ware in askes mynge, and kepe In oil barelles or salt tubbis done. 1519 Exp. Dinners in Misc. Philobiblon Soc. (1867–8) XIII. 40 Pottage flesche viijd. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 17 Remembrynge..the potage potte with flesshe, the onyons and garlyke that they were wont to eate in Egypte. 1608 R. Armin Nest Ninn. D ij, If ye meete him in your pottage-dish, yet know him. 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch. To Rdr. 115 You may guess Such Pottage-Eating stomackes. |
Hence
† ˈpottagy a., of the nature of pottage.
| 1565 J. Halle Hist. Expost. Table 76 Substances like a whyte potagie confection (called Puls). |