Offal

Offal

Noun · /ˈɒf.əl/

Definition

The internal organs of an animal used as food — liver, kidney, heart, tripe, tongue, sweetbreads, and other visceral parts; waste parts of a butchered animal; (archaic or extended) refuse, rubbish, or anything considered worthless or disgusting.

Origin

From Middle English offal, from Middle Dutch afval or Middle Low German afval — off-fall: off (away) + fall (a falling). The word therefore meaning that which falls off or is cut away — the parts that fall away from the carcass during butchery. Related to the modern German Abfall (waste, rubbish, fall-off). In early use, offal referred broadly to waste and refuse; the specific culinary meaning — the edible internal organs and extremities — narrowing and solidifying from the medieval period onwards.