flesh

Definition

The soft tissue of the body, especially muscle and fat.

Etymology

From Middle English flesh, flesch, flæsch, from Old English flǣsċ, from Proto-West Germanic *flaiski, from Proto-Germanic *flaiski, from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- (“to tear, peel off”). Cognates Cognate with Yola vleash, vlesh (“flesh”), North Frisian flaasch, flaosk, Fleesk, fleäsk, floask, flääsk, flååsch (“flesh, meat”), Saterland Frisian Flaask (“flesh, meat”), West Frisian fleis (“flesh, meat”), Cimbrian blòas, vlaisch, vlòas (“flesh, meat”), Dutch vlees, vleesch (“flesh, meat”), German Fleisch (“flesh, meat”), German Low German and Luxembourgish Fleesch (“flesh, meat”), Vilamovian fłaś (“meat; muscle”), Yiddish פֿלייש (fleysh, “flesh, meat”), Danish flæsk (“pork; bacon”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk flesk (“pork; bacon”), Swedish fläsk (“pork”).

Example Sentences

• "The flesh of chicken, fowl, and turkey has much shorter fibre than that of ruminating animals, and is not intermingled with fat,—the fat always being found in layers directly under the skin, and surrounding the intestines."
• "Thenne syr launcelot sayd / fader what shalle I do / Now sayd the good man / I requyre yow take this hayre that was this holy mans and putte it nexte thy skynne / and it shalle preuaylle the gretely / syr and I wille doo hit sayd sir launcelot / Also I charge you that ye ete no flesshe as longe as ye be in the quest of the sancgreal / nor ye shalle drynke noo wyne / and that ye here masse dayly and ye may doo hit"
• "The fleſh that twycheth any vnclene thinge ſhall not be eaten. but burnt with fire: and all that be clene in their fleſh, maye eate fleſh. Yf any ſoule eate of the fleſh of the peaceofferynges, that pertayne vnto the Lorde and hys vnclenneſſe yet apon him, the ſame ſoule ſhall periſſhe from amonge his peoole.^([sic]) Moreouer yf a ſoule twych any vnclene thinge, whether it be the vnclenneſſe of man or of any vnclene beeſt or any abhominacion that is vnclene: ãd thẽ eate of the fleſh of the peaceoffrynges whiche pertayne vnto the Lord, that ſoule ſhall periſſh from his people."