Word of the Day Archive
Thursday August 2, 2007
brackish \BRAK-ish\ , adjective:
1. Somewhat salty.
2. Distasteful; unpalatable.
Just a few villages dot the dangerous beaches where the Sepik [River] meets the sea, a brackish zone where sharks and saltwater crocodiles lurk.
-- Dennis Lewon, "Learning to Receive", Islands
I gagged, and tasted something metallic and brackish in the back of my throat.
-- Lance Armstrong and Sally Jenkins, It's Not About the Bike
And yet his decision still leaves that brackish aftertaste.
-- Tom Block, review of The Sorrow and the Pity (1971), Culturevulture.net
Brackish derives from Dutch brak, "salty." It is especially used to describe a mixture of seawater and fresh water.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for brackish
