Bombe

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /bÉ’m(b)/

Definitions

  1. A large electro-mechanical device used in World War II to help decipher encrypted enemy communications ; a rounded frozen dessert often layered and served as an impressive dome-shaped treat
  2. An intricate machine from wartime designed to break complex secret codes ; a cold, molded sweet served as a dome-shaped frozen confection
  3. A wartime code-breaking apparatus designed to decrypt encrypted messages ; an elaborate dome-shaped ice cream or sherbet dessert often featuring multiple flavors

Etymology: Two of the word's senses share a shape. The French "bombe" named a rounded, hollow object, and it is a doublet of English "bomb," which descends from the same source and came into English as the name for a round explosive shell. The dessert takes its name from that outline: a dome-shaped mould that resembles a shell. The wartime machine is a different story. It was named after a Polish cryptologic device called "bomba," and the reason the Poles chose that name is uncertain. Some accounts link it to the ticking sound the device made, but this is not firmly established. English speakers therefore borrowed a name whose original reason is unclear, and it now refers to a machine that had nothing rounded about it.

Synonyms: dessert, pudding