🍞 Tangy bread 🧔 An old settler 🧪 Fermented mixture

sourdough

1 9.6

A person who has long lived and looked for gold in Alaska or northwest Canada

noun
/ˈsaʊərˌdoʊ/

Archaic

: buscador

During the gold rush, many sourdoughs traveled to Alaska in search of fortune.
an old sourdough

Examples

♪ Beans and hardtack sourdough ♪ ♪

Escape from Fort Bravo (1953)
Unless you're making sourdough bread (and you have a couple of days to wait for the yeast to get going just on carbohydrates alone), you need some sugar for the yeast to feed on.

Blog text (28)
You, a sourdough?

The Andromeda Strain (1971)
On the other hand, one of the sexiest conversations I ever had with any man was on the subject of wild sourdough strains in our respective parts of the country.

Blog text (28)
♪ Yellow stripes ♪ ♪ On britches blue ♪ ♪ Riding on before us ♪ ♪ Beans and hardtack sourdough ♪ ♪ And bully beef to feed us ♪

Escape from Fort Bravo (1953)
He was a seasoned sourdough, having witnessed the challenges of prospecting in the harsh wilderness.
The tales of sourdoughs who struck gold became legendary among those who followed in their footsteps.

Synonyms

pioneer

vssourdough

36 4.4

A person who is among the first to move to and prepare new land

is a seasoned prospector who usually arrived later and stayed

rusher

vssourdough

Archaic

1 6.8

A person who moves quickly to a new area during a gold rush

is an experienced settler who stayed longer and worked the region

Compounds

sourdough bread

3 2.8

Bread made with a natural starter that has a slightly sour taste and a chewy crust

How Experienced

veteran

153 4.1

sourdough

Archaic

1 9.6

prospector

19 5.1

newcomer

123 1.6

Surface Forms

sourdough singular

sourdoughs plural

Morphology

sourdough = sour + dough (opaque) = sour + dough

Although the form is a real compound of 'sour' and 'dough', the sense 'seasoned settler or prospector' is a historical nickname that cannot be predicted from the parts alone.

Etymology

Sourdough became a nickname for old miners and settlers because they often carried a bread starter called sour dough that made tangy bread in remote camps. So a 'sourdough' came to mean someone with long experience living and working in the wild or the north.