brackish

adj

Etymology: From Scottish brack (from Middle Dutch brac (“brackish”)) + -ish. Cognate with Dutch brak (“brackish”), German Low German brack, brakerg, brakig (“brackish”), German brackig (“brackish”), Danish brak (“brackish”), Swedish bräck (“brackish”), Norwegian brakk (“brackish”). Perhaps a distant doublet of brook.

1. Of water, salty or slightly salty, as a mixture of fresh and sea water, such as that found in estuaries.

   “...by a low courſe and too long ſporting with the briny Ocean it taſts brackiſh and inſalubrious...”

   “1992, Joyce Carol Oates, Black Water, Penguin Books, paperback edition, page 4. On all sides a powerful brackish marshland odor, the odor of damp, and decay, and black earth, black water.”

2. Distasteful; unpleasant; not appealing to the taste.

   “Therefore the bread he had to eat Seemed brackish, less like corn than tares;”

3. Repulsive.