flan
pronunciation
How to pronounce flan in British English:
UK [flæn]
How to pronounce flan in American English:
US [flæn, flɑn, flɑŋ]
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- Noun:
- open pastry filled with fruit or custard
Word Origin
- flan
- flan: [19] The word flan itself is a relatively recent addition to English, adopted on our behalf from French by the chef Alexis Soyer (a Frenchman working in England), but in that form it is in fact simply a reborrowing of a word which originally crossed the Channel in the 13th century as flawn, denoting some sort of custard tart or cheesecake. Its Old French source was flaon, which came from medieval Latin fladō, but this was originally borrowed from Germanic *fladu- (source of German fladen ‘flat cake, cowpat’ and Dutch vlade ‘pancake’), which is probably related ultimately to Sanskrit prthūs ‘broad’, Greek platūs ‘broad’, and English flat.=> flat
- flan (n.)
- "open tart," 1846, from French flan "custard tart, cheesecake," from Old French flaon "flat-cake, tart, flan" (12c.), from Medieval Latin flado (10c.), which probably is from Frankish *flado or another Germanic source (compare Old High German flado "offering cake," Middle High German vlade "a broad, thin cake," Dutch vla "baked custard"), from Proto-Germanic *flatho(n) "flat cake," probably from PIE root *plat- "to spread" (see plaice (n.)). Borrowed earlier as flawn (c. 1300), from Old French.
Example
- 1. Sorry , we 're on a major flan high .
- 2. We embraced , and flan and geoffrey left .
- 3. Oh , we 've got two cases of a semi-gourmet flan .
- 4. Look , I 've got flan all over me .
- 5. And I guarantee you , none of them has ever heard of your big , show-off flan .