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cer·ve·lat

(sĕr-və-lä, -lät)

A sausage typically made of ground beef, pork, and various spices and usually salt-cured and smoked.

[Middle French, from Old Italian cervellata, cervellato, from Old Lombard zervelada, from zervel, brain (probably because early recipes for the sausage included pork brains), from Latin cerebellum, diminutive of cerebrum, brain; see ker-¹ in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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