chawdron

English

WOTD – 7 June 2025

Etymology

From Late Middle English chaudon, chaudoun, chaudron (“sauce made from chopped entrails”),[1] from Old French chaudun (“animal entrails; sauce made from such entrails”) (modern French chaudin (“wrapping of sausages made from pigs’ intestines; Louisiana meat dish cooked in a pig’s stomach”)), from Late Latin caldūmen (“animal entrails”),[2] from Latin caldus (“hot; warm”) +‎ -men (suffix forming nouns, generally describing the means or result of an action).[3][4] Caldus is a variant of calidus (“hot; warm”), from caleō (“to be hot or warm”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelh₁- (“to be hot”)) + -idus (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘tending to’). The spellings with an r are probably influenced by English chaldron (“cauldron”) (obsolete) and Middle English caudroun (“cauldron”),[3][5] while the spelling chawdron as a whole was probably popularized by its use in Macbeth (written c. 1606; published 1623) by the English playwright William Shakespeare (c. 1564 – 1616): see the quotation. Doublet of chaudin.

cognates

Pronunciation

Noun

chawdron (plural chawdrons) (cooking)

  2. (archaic or historical) The entrails of an animal, especially when used as a food ingredient; offal.
    • 1578, Rembert Dodoens, “Of Letuce”, in Henry Lyte, transl., A Niewe Herball, or Historie of Plantes: […], London: […] [Henry [i.e., Hendrik van der] Loë for] Gerard Dewes, […], →OCLC, 5th part (Herbes, Rootes, and Fruites, whiche are Dayly Vsed in Meates), page 570:
      The ſecond kind of Letuce, hath crompled leaues, wrinckled and gathered or drawen together almoſt like the Moquet or Chauden of a Calfe: […]
    • 1604 (date written), Tho[mas] Dekker, [Thomas Middleton], The Honest Whore. […] (4th quarto), London: […] Nicholas Okes for Robert Basse, […], published 1616, →OCLC, Act I, signature B, verso:
      Hovv fare I? troth, for ſixpence a meale, vvench, as vvel as heart can vviſh, vvith Calves Chaldrons, and Chitterlings, beſides I haue a Punck after ſupper, as good as a roſted Apple.
    • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 144, column 1:
      Adde thereto a Tigers Chawdron, / For th'Ingredience of our Cawdron.
    • 1607, Conradus Gesnerus [i.e., Conrad Gessner], Edward Topsell, “Of the Calfe”, in The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes. […], London: […] William Iaggard, →OCLC, page 90:
      Butchers are vvont to buy calues for to kill and ſell their fleſh, for in all creatures, the fleſh of the young ones are much better then the elder, becauſe they are moyſt and ſoft, and therefore vvil digeſt and concocte more eaſie: […] And principally the Germanes vſe the chavvtherne, the head, and the feete, for the beginning of their meales, and the other parts either roaſted, or baked, and ſometime ſod in broath, and then buttered, ſpiced and ſauced, and eaten vvith Onyons.
    • 1611, Randle Cotgrave, compiler, “Fraise”, in A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, signature [Qq v], verso, column 1:
      Fraise: […] A ſtravvberrie; alſo, a ruffe; alſo, a calues chaldern.
    • 1859, Hensleigh Wedgwood, “Chitterling”, in A Dictionary of English Etymology, volume I (A–D), London: Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC, page 335:
      Chitterling. […] The small entrails of a hog, from their wrinkled appearance. […] [German] kalbs gekröse, a calf's pluck or chaldron; gänse gekröse, a goose's giblets, called chitters in the N[orth] of E[ngland].
  3. (obsolete) A sauce made from chopped animal entrails.
    • 1508, “And Here Begynneth Keruyng of All Maner of Fowles”, in […] The Boke of Keruynge, London: […] Wynkyn de Worde […], →OCLC, signature B.i., recto:
      Lyfte that ſwanne. Take and dyghte hym as a gooſe but let hym haue a largyour bꝛawne ⁊ loke ye haue chawdꝛon.
    • 1603, Plutarch, “The Second Booke of the Symposiaques”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, 10th question, page 680:
      [T]heir blamangers, jellies, chavvdres and a number of exquiſit ſauces, and delicate junkets of all ſorts, ſent up and brought to the board: […]
    • 1615, G[ervase] M[arkham], “[The English Hus-wife.] Of the Outward and Actiue Knowledges of the Hous-wife; and First of Her Skill in Cookery.”, in Countrey Contentments, in Two Bookes: The First, Containing the Whole Art of Riding Great Horses in Very Short Time, […] The Second Intituled, The English Huswife: […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for R[oger] Iackson, […], →OCLC, page 62:
      To make a ſauce for a Svvan, Bitter, Shoueler, Herne, Crane, or any large foule, take the blood of the ſame fowle and […] put vnto it vinegar a good quantitie vvith a fevv fine bread crummes […] ſeaſon it vvith ſuger and Cinamon ſo as it may taſt prettie and ſharp vpon the Cinamon, and then ſerue it vp in ſaucers as you do Muſtard; For this is called a Chauder or Gallantine, and is a ſauce almoſt for any Fovvle vvhatſoeuer.
    • 1701, “a lady” [pseudonym], “The Termes and Art of Carving of Fowl, Fish, Flesh, &c. With Proper Sauces, and Garnishings, More Particularly than yet Mentioned. Also the Like in Pastry, Sweetmeats, and Other Rarities.”, in The Whole Duty of a Woman: Or A Guide to the Female Sex. From the Age of Sixteen to Sixty, &c. […], 3rd edition, London: […] J. Guillim, […], →OCLC, page 139:
      To Lift a Swan. […] [P]lace the tvvo halves, ſlit ſide dovvnvvard, ſtrevv ſome Salt and Cinnamon about it, and ſerve up Chaldron Sauce, in Saucers, Garniſhing vvith VVater-Lillies, VVater-Creſſes, or any ſuitable flovvers, or greens, grovving in or by the vvater.
    • 2006, Allison Sim, “Yeomen, Scullions and Children: Living in a Great Household as a Lower Servant”, in Masters and Servants in Tudor England, Thrupp, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, →ISBN, page 72:
      Other sauces were more complicated, such as chawdron sauce, which Gervase Markham in his Complete Housewife calls a galantine. This was intended for larger fowl, such as swan.
      A reference to the 1615 quotation.

Alternative forms

Translations

References

  1. ^ “chaudǒ(u)n, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “*caldūmen”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 2: C Q K, page 78
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Compare “† chawdron, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2024.
  4. ^ “chawdron, n.”, in Collins English Dictionary.
  5. ^ “caudrǒun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Further reading

Middle English

Noun

chawdron

  1. alternative form of chaudoun
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