Etymology

ort

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Today it means: A fragment; a scrap of leftover food; any remainder; a piece of refuse. Full definition →

Middle English orte ← Old English *oreta
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited from*oreta“that which is left after eating”
  2. Middle English · inherited fromorte
  3. English todayort

From Middle English orte, from Old English *oreta (“that which is left after eating”, literally “out-eat”); for more, see Old English or-, English eat. Cognate with Middle Low German orte (“refuse of food”), Middle Dutch ooraete, ooreete, Low German ort (“ort”), Middle High German urez, German Uräß and also German Ort (“quarter (of a thaler, etc)”). As the term for a coin, probably borrowed from the central European languages which used it: German Ort (“quarter (of a thaler)”), Polish ort (“coin”), etc.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.