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pas·tra·mi

(pə-strämē)

n. pl. pas·tra·mis

A highly seasoned smoked cut of beef, usually taken from the shoulder.

[Yiddish pastrame, from Romanian pastramă, from Ottoman Turkish baṣdirma, salted and seasoned air-dried beef, equivalent to Modern Turkish pastırma, bastırma, from verbal noun of bastırmak, to press down, hold down, causative of basmak, to weigh upon, press (in reference to the pressing of the meat while curing it ), from Old Turkic basmaq.]

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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