Giblet
/ˈdʒɪb.lɪt/noun
A small edible internal organ of a bird, especially the heart, liver, and gizzard, often cooked with the bird or used in gravy.
Did you know?Giblet comes through Middle English from Old French, where it referred to a hunter’s or butcher’s portion of a bird’s innards, not a mystical term—but it survived because cooks kept naming the parts people actually ate.
Etymological Timeline
Late Middle English
English
giblet
“the edible internal organs of a bird”
Old French
OF
gibelet / gibelet
“small game bird; by extension, the entrails or edible parts of a bird”
Germanic (uncertain)
Gmc
*gib-
“a likely old Germanic base connected with a small bird or a bird’s parts, though the exact origin is uncertain”
Modern English
English
giblet
“the heart, liver, and other edible organs of poultry”