sb. Forms: (see SOUR a. and DOUGH sb.). [Corresponds in sense 1 to WFris. sûrdaei, older Flem. suerdeech, -deegh (Du. and Flem. zuurdeeg), MLG. sûrdêch, MHG. sûrteich (G. sauerteig), MSw. surdegher (Sw. surdeg), Da. surdeig.]

1

  1.  Leaven. Now dial. and rare.

2

  α.  1303.  R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 10099. Þe paste … ne ogh Be made of any maner of soure dogh.

3

1382.  Wyclif, Exod. xxiii. 18. Thow shalt not offer vpon sour dowȝ the blood of thi sacrifice.

4

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. lxviii. (Bodl. MS.). Sowr dowe rereþ paste and brede þt is medled þerwiþ.

5

14[?].  Nom., in Wr.-Wülcker, 725. Hoc fermentum, surdowght.

6

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 466/2. Sowre Dowe, fermentum.

7

c. 1529.  Skelton, E. Rummyng, 288. Som bryngeth her husbandes hood…; And some brought sowre dowe.

8

1535.  Coverdale, Exod. xiii. 7. Therfore shalt thou eate vnleuended bred seuen dayes, that there be no sowre dowe, ner sowred bred sene in all thy quarters.

9

1869.  Lonsdale Gloss., 78/2. Sour dough or doff, leaven.

10

1876.  Mid. Yorks. Gloss., 132/1. Sour-dough, the more homely equivalent of leaven.

11

  β.  c. 1425.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 663. Hoc fermentum, surdagh.

12

1483.  Cath. Angl., 350/1. Sowre daghe, fermentum, zima.

13

c. 1520.  M. Nisbet, Matt. xiii. 33. The kingdom of heuenis is like to sourdauche.

14

  b.  fig. of qualities, etc.

15

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 2. Crist comandiþ to his disciplis … to vndirstonde & flee þe sowrdow of pharisees.

16

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IX. xxxi. (Bodl. MS.). Ifedde not with olde souredowe of malice but with pure mete of swetenes.

17

a. 1400.  Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., xxiii. 404. Of þe olde wrecchednesse Holdyng doun sourdouh.

18

c. 1450.  Myrr. our Ladye, 300. Be made free from the olde sowre dowgh, that ys to say, from synne.

19

  2.  Amer. One who has spent one or more winters in Alaska.

20

  In allusion to the use of a piece of sour dough for raising the bread baked during the winter.

21

1902.  Daily Chron., 13 Nov., 5/6. He is what is called a ‘sour dough’ in the parlance of the Yukon, which means that he … has spent a winter in the frozen North.

22

1904.  Eliz. Robins, Magnetic North, viii. 154. You don’t get an old Sour-dough like Dillon to travel at forty degrees [of frost].

23

  Hence (from sense 1) † Sour-dough v. trans., to leaven. Obs.

24

1382.  Wyclif, Hosea vii. 4. The citee restide a litil in mengyng to gydre of soure dowe, til it were sourdowid all. Ibid., Amos iv. 5. Sacrifie ȝe herying of sour dowid [L. de fermentato].

25

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 466/2. Sowyr dowyn, or menge paste wythe sowyr dowe, fermento.

26