[WORT sb.2] sweet-flavored wort; esp. the infusion of malt, before the hops are added in the manufacture of beer. Also attrib.
1567. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 203. In the bachousse and brewhouse … a swete worte toube.
1567. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees, 1835), 267. A lead, a maskfatt and a swert wort fatt.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 279. Of all Food [for bees], Honey is the best … if it is mixed well with a moderate Proportion of good Sweet-wort.
1793. Beddoes, Sea Scurvy, 91. Sweet wort, or the extract of malt.
1851–4. Tomlinson, Cycl. Arts (1867), II. 667/1. This vitreous mass was formerly obtained by rapidly boiling down a concentrated solution of sugar in barley-water or sweet-wort, and hence the name of barley-sugar applied to sticks of it.
1876. Harley, Mat. Med. (ed. 6), 322. Alcohol is obtained by the distillation of any saccharine fluid which has been subjected to fermentation. Sweet worts are formed for this purpose by the action of diastase on the starch of the cereals or the potato.
¶ Webster’s (1847–54) definition ‘Any plant of a sweet taste,’ copied by later Dicts., cannot be authenticated.
