ce·vi·che or se·vi·che  (s ə-v ēch ā, s ĕ-)
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n. Raw seafood marinated in a mixture of lime or lemon juice and spices until the citrus causes the seafood to become firm, served as an appetizer.
[Spanish cebiche, ceviche, from Arabic sikbāj, meat cooked in vinegar, from Middle Persian *sikbāg : sik, vinegar + -bāg, food, broth (from Old Iranian *-pāka-, cooked (with or in); see pekw- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots).] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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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