simnel
pronunciation
How to pronounce simnel in British English:
UK ['sɪmnəl]
How to pronounce simnel in American English:
US ['sɪmnəl]
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- Noun:
- a crisp bread of fine white flour
- a fruitcake (sometimes covered with almond paste) eaten at mid-Lent or Easter or Christmas
Word Origin
- simnel
- simnel: [13] Simnel, a term now used for a cake made at Easter, originally denoted ‘bread made from fine flour’. It was borrowed from Old French simenel, which itself came from either Latin simila (source of English semolina) or Greek semídālis, both meaning ‘fine flour’.
- simnel (n.)
- "sweet cake," c. 1200, from Old French simenel "fine wheat flour; flat bread cake, Lenten cake," probably by dissimilation from Vulgar Latin *siminellus (also source of Old High German semala "the finest wheat flour," German Semmel "a roll"), a diminutive of Latin simila "fine flour" (see semolina).
Example
- 1. The lenten fast dictated that the simnel cake had to keep until easter .