What does tartar mean?
Tartar most often means a hard deposit that forms on teeth when plaque mineralizes over time. It is usually associated with dental hygiene: regular brushing and professional cleaning help prevent its build-up. The word also has culinary meanings. Steak tartare is a preparation of finely chopped raw beef, while tartar sauce is a creamy, savory accompaniment made traditionally with egg yolk, oil, and seasonings. In informal English, a person described as a “tartar” may be portrayed as difficult, stubborn, or hard to deal with. Although the culinary and dental senses can seem unrelated, both entered English through historical borrowing and now coexist comfortably in dictionaries and everyday speech. When speaking about teeth, tartar is usually treated as an uncountable substance; in culinary contexts, the word may refer either to a particular preparation or to the sauce as a mass noun.
As a noun, tartar is a hard deposit that forms on teeth, a savory sauce or chopped culinary preparation, or informally a difficult or tough person.
"The dentist removed tartar from the patient's lower molars."
To form or acquire a hard deposit, especially on the teeth.
"Without regular cleaning, plaque can tartar on the teeth."
The plural is used chiefly for the informal noun meaning a difficult or tough person; the dental and culinary senses are normally uncountable.
"The two brothers were notorious tartars who never accepted a refusal."
Tartar can mean either a dentist's stubborn problem or a culinary delicacy, but the two uses have arrived in English through different historical routes.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does tartar come from?
English borrowed the culinary word through French tartare, a term associated with preparations attributed to the Tatars. The dental sense came through Medieval Latin tartarum, used for a hard or encrusted deposit. The culinary and dental uses have different immediate histories, although modern English readily uses tartar for both a dental deposit and a food accompaniment.
Related word forms
How tartar is actually used
In medical and dental contexts, tartar is the usual term for hardened plaque. In cooking, British English commonly uses tartar for the sauce and steak tartare for the chopped raw-meat dish, while American English more often uses tartare for the preparation. The sense meaning a difficult person is informal and relatively uncommon.
Easily confused with tartar
Tartare usually refers to a chopped raw-meat or fish preparation, or to the variant spelling of the word in culinary contexts, whereas tartar most commonly refers to a hardened dental deposit.