Appetizers
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| Alternative names |
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|---|---|
| Course | Appetizer |
| Place of origin | France |
| Serving temperature | Hot or cold |
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An hors d'oeuvre (/ɔːr ˈdɜːrv, ˈdɜːrvrə/; French: hors d'œuvre, [also hors d'oevre] [ɔʁ dœvʁ]), appetizer, or starter is a small dish served before a meal. Some hors d'oeuvres are served cold, others hot. Hors d'oeuvres may be served at the dinner table as a part of the meal, or they may be served before seating. Formerly, hors d'oeuvres were also served between courses.
Typically smaller than a main dish, it is often designed to be eaten by hand (with minimal use of cutlery).
Hors d'oeuvre [hors d'oevre] in French means "outside the work"—that is, "not part of the ordinary set of courses in a meal". The French spelling is the same for singular and plural usage; in English, the ⟨œ⟩ typographic ligature is usually replaced by the digraph ⟨oe⟩, with the plural commonly written hors d'oeuvres and pronounced /ɔːr ˈdɜːrvz/.
"Appetizer" is a synonym for hors d'oeuvre.
"Starter" is sometimes used to denote an hors d'oeuvre, sometimes to denote more substantial courses, known in Europe and North America as entrées.
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