On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 11:20:44 -0400, "Jeff Miller"
> wrote:

[---]

>Poolish: A French term for a wet yeasted pre-ferment that's usually and
>equal weight of flour to water.

I very much doubt that the word is French. The term is, of course,
used by bread makers here (as it is elsewhere) but is otherwise not a
current term in French.

It is not in the "Petit Robert" (the French equivalent of the
Webster's or the OED) either, and the double vowel combination "oo"
and the consonants "sh" are also not French.

I suspect that it is in French, as in English, a borrowed word from
somewhere else - perhaps Eastern Europe?