custard

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English custarde, an altered form of crustade or crustarde, a kind of pie,^[2][3][4][5] with the first r moved or lost.^[6][7][8] The Middle English word is borrowed from Anglo-Norman *crustade, a derivative of Old French crouste (“crust”),^[9][10][11] which is from Latin crusta (“rind, crust, shell, bark”), the source of crust.^[12][9][13] Etymonline, the American Heritage Dictionary, Merriam-Webster and Barnhart trace it to Old Occitan croustado (“fruit tart”), literally "something covered with a crust", from crosta (“crust”);^{[12][14][2][13][5]} Klein and Skeat traced it instead through French croustade to Italian crostata, a kind of pie, from Latin crustāta, the feminine past participle of crustō (“to cover with a crust”).^[15][6] The Anglo-Norman spelling custard, for a dish baked in a crust, is recorded from 1427–28.^[16][3] Etymonline suggests the loss of the r may be due to the influence of mustard, and Klein says so outright.^[12][15] Crustade and croustade are related.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A pie or other dish baked in a crust: Barnhart dates the plural custadis to about 1353,^[17][13] and Etymonline dates crustade to the mid-14th century.^[12] The Middle English Dictionary quotes recipes for crustardes of meat, of fish and of herbs from the Forme of Cury (before 1399).^[18] The spelling custard is first recorded about 1450, for an open pie of meat, fish, fruit or nuts filled with a mixture of beaten eggs and milk.^[3][13]

Semantic evolution

The name referred to the pastry case: the medieval crustade was an open pie, filled with stock or milk that was often thickened with eggs.^[9][3] Over time the name passed from the pie to its filling,^[19][9] and by about 1600 it named a dish of eggs beaten into milk and baked or boiled.^[12][13] The OED's first record of this sense is in Shakespeare's All's Well that Ends Well (before 1616), and the old pie sense is last recorded in 1688.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined custard as eggs boiled with milk and sugar until thick, "a food much used in city feasts".^[20] The sweet yellow sauce served with puddings is recorded from 1747, in Hannah Glasse's Art of Cookery.^[3] From 1598 a custard could also be a coward, a use that after the 17th century survives only in cowardly custard and cowardy custard.^[3] The custard pie was in use by 1825, and the OED notes that it was common as a missile in broad comedy.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1353 – custadis, pies.^[17][13] Etymonline dates crustade to the mid-14th century.^[12]
• before 1399 – crustardes of meat and fish, in the Forme of Cury.^[18]
• c. 1450 – the spelling custard, an open pie filled with eggs and milk (last recorded 1688).^[3][13]
• 1598 – a fearful or cowardly person.^[3]
• before 1616 – a dish of eggs and milk baked until set, in Shakespeare.^[3]
• 1747 – a sweet sauce of eggs, sugar and milk.^[3]
• 1825 – custard pie.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sweetened mixture of milk and eggs, baked or boiled until it sets: She served a baked custard with stewed plums.^[2][5][3]
2. A sweet sauce made with milk and sugar and thickened with eggs or cornflour, served with puddings.^[5][3][11]
3. A dish made with a custard base: a spinach custard.^[2]
4. (obsolete, 1450–1688) An open pie of meat, fish or fruit filled with a mixture of eggs and milk.^[3][11]

Word family

• custardy
• custard-pie
• custard apple
• custard cup
• frozen custard

Related words

• crust
• crustade
• croustade

Usage notes

The Shorter Oxford treats the custard of the children's taunt cowardy custard as a separate word, an alteration of costard,^[11] whereas the OED takes it as the same word as the dish.^[3] In northern Lincolnshire dialect custard was also a large early apple,^[21] and in East Anglia a stroke of the cane on the palm of the hand.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
15. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
16. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
17. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
18. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
19. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
20. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
21. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)