Relish

How to spell relish

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce relish

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does relish mean?

1. verbTo enjoy or take great pleasure in something.
2. nounA savoury sauce or pickled mixture used to add flavour to food.
3. nounGreat enjoyment or keen appreciation of something.

Relish in a sentence

• verb

  She did not relish the long drive home after the conference.

• noun

  He spread a thick layer of sweet relish across the hot dog.

• noun

  She described the meal with obvious relish and a wide smile.

• verb

  He seemed to relish every difficult challenge his new job presented.

• noun

  The deli sold a tangy onion relish in small glass jars.

• noun

  The team tackled the project with a relish that surprised their manager.

Where does relish come from?

Language of origin: French

Relish comes from the Old French word reles, which meant an aftertaste or something left behind, derived from the verb relaisser, 'to leave behind' or 'to release'. That in turn traces back to the Latin relaxare, meaning 'to loosen' or 'to slacken', the same root that gives us 'relax' and 'release'. When the word entered English in the 1500s, it first referred to the lingering taste a food leaves on the palate, the flavour that remains after eating. From that idea of a pleasing aftertaste, the meaning broadened to a savoury condiment that adds flavour, and then to the figurative sense of keen enjoyment or zest for something. The spelling can trip writers because the soft ending sounds like '-ish' but grows from that French reles, not from any 'rel-ish' root.

How the word is built

• re- (back, again)
• -lish (from Old French reles, aftertaste/remainder)