cupcake

Etymology

It is formed from English cup + cake,^[2][3][4] originally in American English.^[2][3][4] Etymonline thinks the name probably comes from the cups the cakes were baked in, but possibly from the small measures of the ingredients;^[3] Green's Dictionary of Slang gives both explanations,^[5] and Barry Popik calls the origin unknown.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small cake baked in a cup-shaped container: 1828, in E. Leslie's Seventy-five Receipts.^[2] Merriam-Webster and Etymonline date it to 1828 too.^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

From 1829 American cookbooks also used cupcake for a cake made from ingredients measured by the cupful, a sense now historical.^[2] Popik finds the food name in American cookbooks from 1828 and suggests it may have originated in the north-east, possibly New York.^[6] The word was soon used figuratively: from 1935 as a term of endearment, especially for a woman or child,^[2] then from 1939, when Damon Runyon wrote of "a prettier little cupcake" in Collier's, for an attractive young woman.^[5][2][8] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1930s in American English.^[3] Later American slang used the word for the female breasts (1971) and in gay slang for a young homosexual man (1972).^[5]

Timeline

• 1828 – a small cake baked in a cup-shaped container.^[2][7][3]
• 1829 – a cake made from ingredients measured by the cupful (now historical).^[2]
• 1935 – a term of endearment, especially for a woman or child.^[2]
• 1939 – an attractive young woman.^[2][5][8]
• 1971 – in the plural, the female breasts.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small cake for one person, baked in a cup-shaped paper or foil case or a muffin pan, often topped with icing: She iced two dozen cupcakes for the school fair.^[2][7][9]
2. (informal) A term of endearment, especially for a woman or child: Night night, cupcake.^[2][5]
3. (slang) An attractive young woman.^[2][5][8]
4. (historical) A cake made from ingredients measured by the cupful.^[2]

Related words

• cup
• cake

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
6. ^ a b Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Cup Cake [Cupcake]", 1 October 2007
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins