Pottage vs. Stew — What's the Difference?

Pottage or potage ( POT-ij;, also UK: , French: [pɔtaʒ] (listen); from Old French pottage 'food cooked in a pot') is a term for a thick soup or stew made by boiling vegetables, grains, and, if available, meat or fish. It was a staple food for many centuries.

A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables and may include meat, especially tougher meats suitable for slow-cooking, such as beef, poultry, sausages, and seafood.

Soup or stew.

To cook (food) by simmering or boiling slowly.

A thick soup or stew of vegetables and sometimes meat.

To undergo cooking by boiling slowly or simmering.

(Archaic) Porridge.

(Informal) To suffer with oppressive heat or stuffy confinement; swelter.

A thick soup or stew, made by boiling vegetables, grains, and sometimes meat or fish, a staple food throughout Europe in the Middle Ages.

(Informal) To be in a state of anxiety or agitation.

(archaic) An oatmeal porridge.

(obsolete) A cooking-dish used for boiling; a cauldron.

A kind of food made by boiling vegetables or meat, or both together, in water, until soft; a thick soup or porridge.

A heated bath-room or steam-room; also, a hot bath.

A stew of vegetables and (sometimes) meat

(archaic) A brothel.

Thick (often creamy) soup

(obsolete) A prostitute.

A dish cooked by stewing.

(Sussex) A pool in which fish are kept in preparation for eating.

An artificial bed of oysters.

(slang) A state of agitated excitement, worry, and/or confusion.

(informal) A steward or stewardess on an airplane or boat.

To cook (food) by slowly boiling or simmering.

(transitive) To brew (tea) for too long, so that the flavour becomes too strong.

To suffer under uncomfortably hot conditions.

To be in a state of elevated anxiety or anger.

A small pond or pool where fish are kept for the table; a vivarium.

An artificial bed of oysters.

A place of stewing or seething; a place where hot bathes are furnished; a hothouse.

A brothel; - usually in the plural.

A prostitute.

A dish prepared by stewing; as, a stewof pigeons.

A state of agitating excitement; a state of worry; confusion; as, to be in a stew.

To boil slowly, or with the simmering or moderate heat; to seethe; to cook in a little liquid, over a gentle fire, without boiling; as, to stew meat; to stew oysters; to stew apples.

To be seethed or cooked in a slow, gentle manner, or in heat and moisture.

Agitation resulting from active worry;

Food prepared by stewing especially meat or fish with vegetables

Be in a huff; be silent or sullen

Bear a grudge; harbor ill feelings

Cook slowly and for a long time in liquid;