A Starter Is a First Course, a Motor, and a House
A starter begins something. In Britain it is the first course of a meal, in a car it turns the engine over, and in property it is the first rung.
A starter is whatever begins something. British menus use it for the first course, where Americans say appetizer; a car's *starter motor* turns the engine until it fires; a *starter home* is a small first property; and a sourdough *starter* is the living culture that raises the bread.
- A first course (British). *Soup as a starter.*
- A motor that starts an engine. *The starter is faulty.*
- A first home. *A starter flat.*
- A fermenting culture. *Feed the starter.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | starter | A light starter. |
| Plural | starters | Two starters. |
| Verb | start | Start the engine. |
| Compound | starter motor | A new starter motor. |
| Phrase | for starters | For starters, it is late. |
How it is used in a sentence
- We shared a starter.British restaurant.
- The starter motor is drawing too much current.Mechanical.
- For starters, nobody told us.Meaning to begin with.
Courses of a meal
- Starter / appetizer — the first course
- Main / entrée — the main course, though entrée means starter in France
- Side — an accompanying dish
- Dessert / pudding — the sweet course
- Amuse-bouche — a small extra before the starter
From *start*, Old English *styrtan*, to leap up. The meal sense is British and twentieth-century; the mechanical sense arrived with the electric starter in 1912.
Why does *entrée* mean different things?
In France it is the entry to the meal, the starter. In America it became the main course, from an older sequence of courses.
What is a sourdough starter?
A culture of flour and water hosting wild yeasts and bacteria, kept alive by regular feeding and used to raise bread.