meringue

Etymology

It is borrowed from French meringue,^[2][3][4][5] recorded in French from 1691.^[2] The French word is of unknown origin,^{[3][6][5][7][8]} and Etymonline finds none of the place-based explanations convincing.^[6] The American Heritage Dictionary suggests Middle Dutch meringe (“evening meal, collation”), related to Middle High German meringe, from mern (“to dip bread in wine”), or a source related to Walloon merinde (“food to be eaten outdoors”), from Latin merenda (“late afternoon meal”), from mereō (“to deserve, obtain”).^[9] The OED compares Medieval Latin meringa, afternoon meal, found in an undated document from Artois, and the classical Latin word for the same meal.^[2] Dictionary.com likewise points to Walloon maringue (“shepherd's loaf”), but notes that certain evidence is lacking, and calls the link with the Swiss town of Meiringen a folk etymology;^[10] Chambers gives Meiringen as a possible source.^[11] The French word was probably also borrowed into German Meringe, Spanish merengue (about 1760) and Italian meringa.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A light mixture of egg whites and sugar, baked crisp: 1706, in the edition of Phillips's New World of Words that Weekley attributes to Kersey.^{[2][12][3][4]}

Semantic evolution

The word entered English as a cookery term and has kept that meaning, used both for the mixture and for a small cake or shell made of it.^[2][7] A dish of fruit and meringue was called a meringué in 1845, from the French past participle;^[2] the verb meringue, to top with meringue, follows French meringuer and is recorded from 1846, in Alexis Soyer.^[2] A meringue filled with whipped cream, meringue à la Chantilly, is recorded from 1901,^[2] and figurative uses, for something light and frothy, from 1920, in D. H. Lawrence.^[2] The OED's first edition (1906) gave a French-style pronunciation, but other evidence suggests that the English pronunciation with /ŋ/ had spread by then, earlier in the United States than in Britain.^[2]

Timeline

• 1706 – a baked mixture of egg whites and sugar.^[2][4][3]
• 1845 – meringué, a dish of fruit and meringue.^[2]
• 1846 – verb, to top with meringue.^[2]
• 1901 – a meringue filled with whipped cream (meringue à la Chantilly).^[2]
• 1920 – figurative use.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mixture of stiffly beaten egg whites and sugar, baked until crisp and used as a topping for pies and puddings.^[4][13][2]
2. A small cake or shell made of this mixture, often filled with cream or fruit: a raspberry meringue.^[13][4][2]

Verb

1. To top a dish with meringue; usually in the passive.^[2]

Related words

• merengue
• merienda

Usage notes

Dictionary.com also enters méringue as a variant of merengue, the dance, from French and ultimately Haitian Creole.^[10]

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 o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins