biscuit
pronunciation
How to pronounce biscuit in British English: UK [ˈbɪskɪt]
How to pronounce biscuit in American English: US [ˈbɪskɪt]
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- Noun:
- small round bread leavened with baking-powder or soda
- any of various small flat sweet cakes (`biscuit' is the British term)
Word Origin
- biscuit
- biscuit: [14] Biscuit means literally ‘twicecooked’ – from the method of cooking, in which the biscuits are returned to the oven after the initial period of baking in order to become dry or crisp. The original source of the word was probably a medieval Latin *biscoctus, from bis ‘twice’ and coctus ‘cooked’, the past participle of coquere (which is related to English cook). It reached English via Old French biscut.=> cook
- biscuit (n.)
- respelled early 19c. from bisket (16c.), ultimately (besquite, early 14c.) from Old French bescuit (12c.), literally "twice cooked;" altered under influence of cognate Old Italian biscotto, both from Medieval Latin biscoctum, from Latin (panis) bis coctus "(bread) twice-baked;" see bis- + cook (v.). U.S. sense of "soft bun" is recorded from 1818.
Example
- 1. And with a certain kind of kitschy biscuit tin .
- 2. This isn 't your typical factory stamped biscuit .
- 3. Cowell pours the tea and I take a chocolate biscuit .
- 4. He broke the garibaldi biscuit she 'd brought with the tea .
- 5. But the reality is that man who asked for my biscuit .