mustard

Wikispecies

From Middle English mustard, from Old French moustarde (French: moutarde), from moust (“must”), from Latin mustum. Compare Saterland Frisian Muster (“mustard”), Dutch mosterd (“mustard”), German Low German Musterd (“mustard”), Icelandic mustarður (“mustard”). Displaced Middle English senep, from Old English senep, from Latin sināpi (“mustard”). Doublet of mostarda.

• enPR: mŭsʹ-tərd, IPA^(key): /ˈmʌstəɹd/
  • (General Australian) IPA^(key): [ˈmas.təd]
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [ˈmɐs.təd]

    • Audio (UK):

      (file)

  • (Northern England) IPA^(key): [ˈmʊs.təd]
  • (US) IPA^(key): [ˈmʌs.tɚd]

    • Audio (US):

      (file)

• Homophone: mustered
• Hyphenation: mus‧tard

mustard (usually uncountable, plural mustards)

1. A plant of certain species of the genus Brassica, or of related genera (especially Sinapis alba, in the family Brassicaceae, with yellow flowers, and linear seed pods).

   Synonym: senvy (obsolete)

2. Powder or paste made from seeds of the mustard plant, and used as a condiment or a spice.

   When the waitress brought the food, I asked whether she had any Dijon mustard.

3. The leaves of the mustard plant, used as a salad.

   Mustard and cress sandwiches.

4. Dark yellow colour, the colour of mustard.

   mustard:  

5. One of a family of vesicants containing one or more 2-chloroethyl (C₂H₄Cl) groups, commonly used in chemical warfare and cancer chemotherapy.
6. The tomalley of a crab, which resembles the condiment.
7. Ellipsis of mustard gas.
8. (baseball, colloquial) Energy, power (when throwing a baseball).
   • 2022 October 20, Scott Russell, “Sport was the great connection for Scott Russell and his father”, in CBC News‎^[1], archived from the original on 2022-10-22:

     He's left-handed and in his adulthood didn't have a baseball glove to call his own. He borrowed one of mine and just out of the car, still wearing his lab coat having worked an overnight shift, he taught himself to throw right-handed and put plenty of mustard on it.

(vesicant containing 2-chloroethyl groups):

• mustard gas
• nitrogen mustard

mustard (not comparable)

1. Of a dark yellow colour.
   • 2007, Cincinnati Magazine, page 81:

     Everything about her year-old restaurant, from the minimalist menu (about a dozen items) with refreshingly drivel-free descriptions to the decor (unadorned warm mustard walls, unclothed bistro tables), reflects her love of bringing people to the table for good, simple food that's not eclipsed by bells and whistles.

2. (slang) Very good, or very skilled.
   • 2005, Bernard Hare, Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew, London: Sceptre, →ISBN, page 168:

     My expectations of public services were nil, so any time within a month was fine by me. They did it in less than a week, which was mustard.

• must (grape juice)

• “mustard adj.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present

• durmast, murtads

• mostard, mostarde, mustart, mustarde, musterd

From Old French moustarde.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmustard(ə)/, /ˈmustərd(ə)/

mustard

1. A mustard plant; the plant where mustard seeds originate.
2. The seeds of this plant used as a spice or flavouring.
3. Mustard; a condiment made from mustard seeds.

• English: mustard
• Scots: mustard, mustart

• “mustard, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-11.