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You're reading What is the difference between sherbet and sorbet?
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Comments
I think there's more to it than just dictionary definitions
by CuriousGTime on May 4th, 2005
They are cognates, but not quite synonyms, especially in American English usage.
They come from a common root word in Arabic, sharab, which meant a cool flavored drink. It traveled through Persian into Turkish as serbet. It was borrowed into Italian as sorbetto, which is when we first have info about the cool sweet fruity drink being frozen. Sorbet is the French version of this name. Sorbet/sorbetto has a pretty consistent usage, of a sugar-syrup based dairyless frozen dessert.
Sherbet, however, has pretty varied usage worldwide: in the US it's a fruity frozen dessert with some milk, in England, it's apparently candy, and in Turkey and many Middle Eastern countries, it's still a cool, fruity drink.
by gracemrowicki on July 2nd, 2011