omelet

Etymology

It is borrowed from French omelette, earlier amelette,^[1][2][3][4] a metathesis of alemette,^[2][3][5] an alteration by change of suffix of Old French alemelle (“blade of a knife or sword”),^[1][2][3][6] probably a misdivision of la lemelle,^[1][2][3][7] from Latin lāmella (“small thin plate”), diminutive of lāmina (“thin plate, layer”).^[1][2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A dish of beaten eggs fried, often with other ingredients (1611 in the OED, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster).^[8][2][4]

Semantic evolution

The dish was named from its flat shape, like a thin metal plate.^[2][3][9][7] The proverb omelets cannot be made without breaking eggs is translated from the French and recorded in English in 1859.^[8][3] The spelling omelet is standard in the United States, omelette in Britain.^[10]

Timeline

• 1611 – the egg dish.^[8][2][4]
• 1859 – the proverb about breaking eggs.^[8]
• 1872 – verb, to make into an omelet.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A dish of beaten eggs cooked in a pan without stirring until set, often folded over a filling such as cheese or herbs.

Related words

• lamina
• lamella
• laminate

References

1. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House