Uproar - Etymology, Origin & Meaning (original) (raw)

[undercooked] 1650s, a variant of Middle English rere, from Old English hrere "lightly cooked," probably related to hreran "to stir, move, shake, agitate," from Proto-Germanic *hrorjan, which is reconstructed to be from PIE root *kere- "to mix, confuse; cook" (source also of Greek kera- "to mix," krasis "mixture"). Germanic cognates include Old Frisian hrera "to stir, move," Old Saxon hrorian, Dutch roeren, German rühren, Old Norse hroera.

Originally of eggs, in reference to meat from 1784, and, according to OED (1989), in this sense "formerly often regarded as an Americanism, although it was current in many English dialects ... and used by English writers in the first half of the 19th c."