Other forms: sorrels
Sorrel is a sharp-tasting leaf, or a light reddish-brown horse. Sorrel soup, a sorrel gelding, wild sorrel.
The leaf is sour from oxalic acid, the same compound that makes rhubarb leaves inedible, so it is used in small amounts. Both senses come from the same French root meaning sour: the horse colour is named for the plant.
1nounsharpA sharp-tasting leaf.
“She added a handful of sorrel to the salad for its lemony taste.”
2nounsorrelA light reddish-brown horse.
“She rode a sorrel mare with a pale mane and tail.”
sorrel is a plant, or a colour.
SORREL → the colour of CORAL
The horse is the colour of coral, a light red-brown all over.
hooks ontocoral
Old French surele comes from sur, sour, of Germanic origin. The horse colour was named from the plant.
Old French
sorel
Middle English
sorel
English, today
sorrel
Built from
From Middle English sorel, from Old French sorel, surele (“sorrel”), from Old French sur (“sour”), of gem - origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic sūraz (“sour”); equivalent to sour + el. Compare Old English sūre (“sorrel”), Icelandic súra (“sorrel”), Dutch zuring (“dock (plant), sorrel”). More at sour.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA