Also 6 botarge, 7 buttargo, butargo, puttargo, 8 boutargue, (9 boutaraga), Pl. -oes, -os. [a. It. botargo, botarga (now buttarga), ad. Arab. buṭarkhah ‘preserved mullet-roe,’ in Makrizi A.D. 1400 (in pl. buṭārikh, whence It. var. bottarica), ad. Coptic outarakhon, which the Arab. word renders in a glossary published by Kircher; f. Coptic ou- indef. article + Gr. ταρίχιον pickle. See Quatremère in Journal des Savants, Jan., 1848 (Fr. form boutargue, occas. found in Eng.)].
A relish made of the roe of the mullet or tunny.
1598. Epulario, H ij b. To make Botarge, a kind of Italian meat, fish spawn salted.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 93. Salt, Buttargo, and Cassia being now the principall [commodities].
1616. Capt. Smith, Descr. New Engl., 16 (Arb.), 197. Mullet and Puttargo. Ibid. (1620), New-Engl. Trials, Wks. (Arb.), 240. Mullit, Caviare, and Buttargo.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xxi. Hard rowes of mullet called Botargos.
1661. Pepys, Diary, 5 June. Drinking great draughts of claret, and eating botargo, and bread and butter.
1702. W. J., trans. Bruyn’s Voy. Levant, xlii. 170. They … take out the Spawn, of which … they make Boutargue.
1730. Swift, Panegyr. Dean, Misc. (1735), V. 141. And, for our home-bred British Cheer, Botargo, Catsup, and Caveer.
1813. Hobhouse, Journ., 693. Boutaraga, or the roes of fish, salted and pressed into rolls like sausages.
1840. Hood, Kilmansegg, xxviii. That huge repast, With its loads & cargoes Of drink & botargoes, At the birth of the Babe in Rabelais.
1852. Schmitz, Niebuhr’s Anc. Hist., I. 140.
