Definition

Noun (archaic): The internal organs of an animal, especially the edible ones such as the heart, liver, and lungs; the entrails or pluck.

Usage Examples

• (The internal organs of the deer were taken out for consumption.)
• (The edible entrails of the goose were included in the filling.)
• (The organ meats were reserved for customers who liked such food.)

Advanced Usage

• The word "purtenance" is now considered highly archaic and is rarely used in modern English. It appears primarily in historical texts, old cookbooks, or literary works from earlier centuries.
• "The purtenance of the beast": a phrase found in some older translations of the Bible (e.g., Exodus 12:9 in the King James Version), referring to the entrails of the Passover lamb.
  • They roasted the lamb whole, including its purtenance. (The internal organs were not removed before cooking.)

Variants and Related Words

• Appurtenance (n): a subordinate or accessory part; something that belongs to something else (e.g., a garage is an appurtenance to a house). This word is still in use, but note that "purtenance" is not a direct variant of "appurtenance"; they are etymologically related but distinct.

Synonyms

• Entrails: the internal organs of an animal.
• Offal: the edible internal organs of a butchered animal.
• Pluck: the heart, liver, and lungs of an animal, especially of a sheep or goat.

Related Idioms

• None common. The word is too obscure to appear in modern idiomatic expressions.