sharbat

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Hindustani, from Classical Persian شَرْبَت (šarbat). Doublet of sherbet and sorbet.

Noun

sharbat (plural sharbats)

1. A West and South Asian sweet drink prepared from fruits or flower petals; a sherbet.
   • 1998, Jeffrey Steingarten, The Man Who Ate Everything, page 362:

     The Arabs brought sugarcane, mulberries, and citrus fruits (along with many things that have nothing to do with granita), and innumberable recipes for sharbat, their sweetened, aromatic drinks flavored with fruits, blossoms, and spices, and often chilled with mountain snow.

   • 2005, Orhan Pamuk, translated by Maureen Freely, Snow, page 218:

     Ka found the general lack of interest liberating. This is why he went into the snack bar on the corner of Little Kâzimbey Avenue and Kâzim Karabekir Avenue, and ordered himself a cinnamon sharbat, and he drank it with relish.

   • 2008, Preeta Samarasan, Evening Is the Whole Day, page 318:

     When Mrs. Dwivedi had no longer felt like standing there tracking Chellam's progress in the punishing heat, she’d come indoors, ordered her cook to make her a tall glass of iced sharbat, and telephoned Amma.

Translations

sherbet — see sherbet

Anagrams

• bhartas