Etymologically
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cupcake

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈkʌpkeɪk/[1]

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]

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