WOTD - Mouthfeel - Jan. 11

The Word of the Day for January 11, 2008 is:

mouthfeel • \MOWTH-feel\ • noun
: the sensation created by food or drink in the mouth

Example Sentence:
The excessive carbonation in the beer gives it a prickly mouthfeel that detracts from its otherwise pleasing taste.

Did you know?
Do you sometimes find yourself trying to describe a concept or phenomenon for which you don't have a word? In such cases, it is not unusual for people to coin neologisms (new words or expressions) to describe such concepts or phenomena -- the pink glow on the underside of gray clouds right before sunset, for example, or the sensation created in the mouth by a particular item of food or drink. Indeed, this latter concept has already been given a name, "mouthfeel," a simple combination of "mouth" and "feel" that can be used to describe the creamy warmth of a mushroom soup or the dry, velvety sensation of a pinot noir. This coinage is relatively new; its earliest known use dates back only to 1951.