sorrel

/ˈsɔrəl/

/ˈsɔrəl/

Other forms: sorrels

If you have a reddish-brown horse, you can call it a sorrel. If your favorite riding boots are the same color as your horse, you can describe them as sorrel too.

The word sorrel is a homograph with two distinct meanings. It can mean either a reddish brown color (or a horse with that coloring) or any of various plants with sour juice. Both words came via French, and are ultimately from different Germanic roots. The color sorrel comes from sor, "yellowish-brown" in Middle French, while the horse of the same name might more commonly be described as "chestnut."

Definitions of sorrel

1. noun

   East Indian sparsely prickly annual herb or perennial subshrub widely cultivated for its fleshy calyxes used in tarts and jelly and for its bast fiber
   synonyms: Hibiscus sabdariffa, Jamaica sorrel, red sorrel, roselle, rozelle

   type of:

   hibiscus

   any plant of the genus Hibiscus
2. noun

   large sour-tasting arrowhead-shaped leaves used in salads and sauces
   synonyms: common sorrel

   type of:

   green, greens, leafy vegetable

   any of various leafy plants or their leaves and stems eaten as vegetables
3. noun

   any of certain coarse weedy plants with long taproots, sometimes used as table greens or in folk medicine
   synonyms: dock, sour grass

   types:

   Rumex acetosa, garden sorrel, sour dock

   European sorrel with large slightly acidic sagittate leaves grown throughout north temperate zone for salad and spring greens

   Rumex acetosella, sheep sorrel, sheep's sorrel

   small plant having pleasantly acid-tasting arrow-shaped leaves; common in dry places

   Rumex obtusifolius, bitter dock, broad-leaved dock, yellow dock

   European dock with broad obtuse leaves and bitter rootstock common as a weed in North America

   French sorrel, Rumex scutatus, garden sorrel

   low perennial with small silvery-green ovate to hastate leaves

   type of:

   herb, herbaceous plant

   a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests
4. noun

   any plant or flower of the genus Oxalis
   synonyms: oxalis, wood sorrel

   types:

   Oxalis acetosella, common wood sorrel, cuckoo bread, shamrock

   Eurasian plant with heart-shaped trifoliate leaves and white purple-veined flowers

   Bermuda buttercup, English-weed, Oxalis cernua, Oxalis pes-caprae

   South African bulbous wood sorrel with showy yellow flowers

   Oxalis corniculata, creeping oxalis, creeping wood sorrel

   creeping much-branched mat-forming weed; cosmopolitan

   Oxalis caprina, goat's foot, goatsfoot

   short-stemmed South African plant with bluish flowers

   Oxalis violacea, violet wood sorrel

   perennial herb of eastern North America with palmately compound leaves and usually rose-purple flowers

   Oxalis crenata, Oxalis tuberosa, oca, oka

   South American wood sorrel cultivated for its edible tubers

   type of:

   herb, herbaceous plant

   a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests
5. noun

   a horse of a brownish orange to light brown color
   type of:

   Equus caballus, horse

   solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times
6. noun

   a light brownish color
7. adjective

   of a light brownish color
   synonyms: brownish-orange

   chromatic

   being, having, or characterized by hue