First attested in 1890. Borrowed fromGermanWurst(“sausage, wurst”), fromMiddle High Germanwurst, fromOld High Germanwurst, fromProto-West Germanic*wursti(“something turned or twisted”), fromProto-Indo-European*wert-,*werd-(“to turn”).
Akin toOld Saxonworst(“wurst”),Old Englishweorþan(“to turn, become”).Doublet ofwors. Unrelated toworsted(“type of yarn”). More atworth(“to be, become, betide”).
wurst (countable anduncountable,pluralwursts)
- AGerman- orAustrian-stylesausage.
1975, John W[illiam] Hill, “Food: A Collage of Chemicals”, inChemistry for Changing Times, 2nd edition, Minneapolis, Minn.: Burgess Publishing Company,→ISBN,page251:If you pick up a package of liverwurst (Germanwurst, sausage), you may find that it contains, in addition to liver, nonfat dry milk, salt, corn syrup, flavorings (unspecified), sodium erythrobate, sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, gelatin, and dextrose. The list reads like a list of chemicals for a laboratory experiment! If you wish to avoid “chemicals” in your food,wurst is one of the worst things you can buy.
1973, Sammy Tippit, as told toJerry Jenkins, “With God in Germany”, inSammy Tippit: God’s Love in Action, Chicago, Ill.:Moody Press, published1976,→ISBN,page117:We had a long walk ahead to Stuttgart. We stopped to eat at a little meat market just outside Augsburg. I bought a loaf of bread and chose a couple of packages ofwurst. It really was good.
1987,Christina Hardyment, “Harlekins and Gondolas”, inHeidi’s Alp: One Family’s Search for Storybook Europe, Book Club edition, New York, N.Y.:The Atlantic Monthly Press,→OCLC,page163:Although the supermarket tannoy was bravely broadcastingRigoletto, its meat counter was thick withwurst and its wine shelves loaded with Liebfraumilch.
1994, Berkeley students in cooperation with theAssociated Students of the University of California, “Bolzano”, in “The Dolomites and the Northeast”, inItaly on the Loose 1995 (The Berkeley Guides: The Budget Traveler’s Handbook), New York, N.Y.:Fodor’s Travel Publications, Inc.,→ISBN,page85:Sure, the map says it’s Italy, but after walking through the centuries-old market at Piazza Erbe (Obstplatz) and seeing one too many suspiciously Teutonic-looking locals munchingwurst, you might think you’ve crossed the Austrian border.
2009,Tom Davis, “Incidents and Coincidence: Death Camps, Franken, and the Beatles”, inThirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There, New York, N.Y.:Grove Press,→ISBN,page201:At an open-air flea market, we looked for Nazi memorabilia while munchingwurst and drinking beer.
2011, Dardis McNamee,Frommer's Austria:In summer, you're welcomed into a flower-decked garden set against a backdrop of ancient vineyards. You can fill up your platter with some of the bestwursts and roast meats (especially the delectable pork), along with freshly made salads.
German- or Austrian-style sausage
According to Duden, it is derived from the nounWurst(“sausage”), but the connection is unclear.
wurst
- (colloquial)anyway,anyhow
- Synonyms:egal,schnuppe
- Das ist mirwurst. ―I don't care about it.
wurst
- (Early Middle English)Alternative form ofworst
wurst
- (Early Middle English)Alternative form ofworst
wurst
- (Early Middle English)Alternative form ofworst
Category:German sausages on Wikipedia.Wikipedia